"One of Indias most remote tribes." "A mountain they revere as a god." "And the multinational mining company with its sight set on the mountains sacred stone." "The stage is set for a bitter struggle against the backdrop of eastern Indias dramatic landscapes." "As the buldozers draw closer, what will one tribe do to save their forest, their mountains and their god." "Mine: story of a sacred mountain" "We have been living here for generations." "Our God created this earth, and from that day people started living here." "There is a place where rich forest shrouds the hillsides." "Where the summers monsune rains turn the streams into rivers." "And the mountains are revered as gods." "These are Indias Niyamgiri hills, home to one of the subcontinents most remote tribes, the Dongria Kondh." "In the beginning, their mountain god created Niyamgiri as a homeland for the Dongria." "And they say, he has been watching over them ever since." "Niyam Raja is our God and we worship Him." "We worship the rocks, the hills, our houses and our villages." "We never stop worshipping." "The mountain is our temple and our God." "Our God has been looking after us for thousands of years." "The Dongria Kondh hunt and gather in Niyamgiris forests." "But they also grow a remarkable variety of plants." "It seams that almost any fruit will grow in Niyamgiris sheltered climate." "And so each family has its own gardens high on the hillsides." "We grow millet, peas, beans... we grow everything." "This is millet." "We get leaves, paeri fruit, bamboo, roots and our medicinal plants from our mountain." "Why are you not speaking?" "I´m doing all the talking!" "Dongria Kondh men spend much of their time in the forest collecting a different kind of harvest." "They are gathering juice from the forests giant palm trees." "Each man harvests juice from his own tree." "Sometimes walking miles to check on the palms." "The fresh juice is sweet, but it becomes mildly alcoholic as it ferments." "Palm juice gives the men the energy they need to keep walking through the dense forest for hours on end." "I´ve travelled across all these mountains." "I could show you everything here." "Palm juice from trees in the forest, which fills our stomachs and gives us strength." "Bananas and sweet roots that give us our heatlh." "You must film them as well." "We live for our Niyamgiri, for its trees and its leaves and for everything that is here." "It´s only because the Dongria know their land so intimately that this extraordinary forest survives." "But it´s not the bananas or the sweet roots which are now attracting outsiders." "The mountains are rich in bauxite, the raw material for alluminium." "And it´s this that´s brought London based mining company Vedanta Resources here." "It plans a vast open cast mine on the top of Niyamgiri the Dongria Kondh´s most sacred site." "Because of Niyamgiri Mountain the Dongria Kondh have survived for thousands of years." "As long as we have Niyamgiri, we´ll be able to grow our food." "Now Vedanta has come and is trying to drive the Dongria Kondh away from this mountain." "Lodu is the leader of Lakpota, a village that lies inside the area leased to Vedanta." "Like other Dongria Kondh men, he makes sure there is a suply of palm juice on hand before making any journey." "This time he is taking Survival researchers to the mine site in the forest above his village." "We are used to the Indian government here." "But the Vedanta government has come and devastated so many people." "They won´t let us live in peace." "They want to take these rocks from the mountain." "But if they take away these rocks, how will we survive?" "These rocks are the reason our children can live here." "Because of these the rain comes." "The winter comes, the wind blows, the mountain brings all the water." "If they take away these rocks, we´ll all die." "We´ll lose our soul." "Niyamgiri is our soul." "The company hopes that blasting the top of the mountain away will reveal 70 million tons of bauxite." "Through the trees you can see Vedantas alluminium refinery in neighbouring Lanjigarh." "These white planes far below Niyamgiri are home to other neighbouring tribes." "And Lodu sees their fate as a warning." "You should go to Lanjigarh and find out how the refinery came to be there." "Life is so hard there that old women and children are dying." "Now that people there have realised what is happening they are speaking out against it." "Initially they welcomed the company but now they realise their mistake because they live like dogs." "Now they realise they´ve lost their land and their homes forever." "Vedanta has stolen everything from them." "Go to Lanjigarh and see for yourself." "Vedantas refinery dominates the planes around Lanjigarh." "Its toxic waste is dumped into enormous pools and then seeps underground." "You can even hear its humm from high in the Dongria Kondhs forests." "But Lanjigarh wasn´t always like this." "We used to eat and drink well." "We had good water to bathe in, too." "We lived on fruits and vegetables." "from the forest and the farming was good." "Nowadays nearly everything around Lanjigarh has the word Vedanta written on it." "But even talking about the company is something that makes some people here nervous." "Then the company came and told us and told us to leave our land and take money in exchange." "They said, "if the refinery comes here, you´ll all be better off."" "Most people said "we´ll not leave our village"." "But the company tried to force them out and harrassed them a lot." "When people said they wouldn´t leave, they came with bulldozers at night and demolished their homes." "Ever since the company has come here we haven´t been able to farm our fields." "The crops won´t grow because of the dust." "The company has not kept promises it made to the people." "Those who weren´t forced out of their homes may encounter themselves lucky." "But many ended up living right next to the refinery razorwire fence." "With their fields, gardens and water on the other side." "Doko Maji was one of them." "Like many local men, he spent time in jail, after protesting at the refinery gates." "After losing our land to the company," "I can´t begin to describe what trouble we are going through." "The site where the refinery is now, the sources of water were in abundance." "But now the bauxite dust is mixing into the wells and the streams." "We´re in great trouble, nothing is right here." "But alongside the pollution and the razorwire there is something remarkable - resistance." "Now they´re trying to tell us that the company will do good things." "But we say," ""You don´t have to take care of us."" ""We can take care of ourselves."" ""We´ll lead our lives the way we know."" "Vedanta is trying to terrorise us." "People here are extremely agitated now." "They are ready to lay down their lives to protect Niyamgiri." "The Dongrias are like fish in a pond." "If you take them out of Niyamgiri, they will die like fish out of water." "But leaving their beloved Niyamgiri isn´t a fate that the Dongria Kondh seem about to accept." "Back in Niyamgiri the pressure is mounting." "Roads are being bulldozed deep into the hills." "We will not allow Vedanta to come here and because we didn´t know earlier, they were able to build the refinery in Lanjigarh." "But now that we know about them, we won´t allow them to come here at any cost." "We don´t need roads up to Niyamgiri." "We don´t have any vehicles to use this kind of road." "And so the Donghrias have blocked the roads into their sacred hills." "They are not waiting for their fate to be decided in a corporate boardroom." "But still it´s clear some Dongrias have thought about what it would mean for them to leave this place." "If we don´t fight, we´ll become nomadic like birds." "We´ll die like fish without water." "How can we live without Niyamgiri?" "Because we get roots, fruit wood, leaves which we can sell." "What would we have if we left this place?" "There´s nothing down there on the plains." "What could they give us?" "These are practical considerations." "But they hide something darker." "The Dongria don´t just eat the fruit and sweet roots that Niyamgiri provides." "They worship its hills." "And revere the forest." "Without Niyamgiri they don´t exist as a people." "And without them Niyamgiri will be destroyed, made into cars, planes and chocolate wrappers." "We don´t cheat anyone." "We don´t do that." "We work hard to earn our living." "We don´t even have any fingernails left." "This is how we lead our lives." "Vedanta does not have any right to touch our Niyamgiri mountain." "Even if you cut our throuats, even if you behead us, we are not going to allow this." "We´ll see how they are going to take over our mountains." "Listen to me, dear brothers and sisters, did you hear everything?" "We need people from outside to stand with us, then we have to fight." "Then we can survive." "We can save our land." "And we can be in charge of our territory." "We won´t give our forest to anybody," "Even if you kill us, even if you hang us." "We´ll carry on living here peacefully." "All us women will go to jail." "How many people can they keep in jail?" "How long can the police keep us for?" "They will give me rice and meat so I´ll live in jail." "I´m not going to leave my Niyam Raja until I die." "It´s not just about us, we need people like you to join our struggle." "We have to drive Vedanta away from here." "Where will us children go?" "How will we survive?" "No, we won´t give up our mountain!" "We asked Vedanta Resources plc for their response to this film." "We received no reply."