27 September,2010 06:38 AM IST | | The Guide Team
In a paradox of sorts, Vedanta, a UK-based company, was chosen as the recipient of World Environment Foundation's award for best practices in environment management.
Find out how easy it is to feed lies and indulge in what is increasingly becoming an oft-used word: greenwashing, through a 33-minute documentary The Real Face of Vedanta by independent filmmaker Surya Shankar Dash.
A still from The Real Face of Vedanta
It draws attention to the plight of communities from more than twenty villages suffering from the pollution caused by the one million tonne per annum aluminum refinery plant of Vedanta in Lanjigarh, Orissa.
The film has shocking images of river pollution by the Vedanta refinery while it claims to be a zero discharge factory.
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The impact of the pollution shows vividly on the faces of little children and on the bodies of men and women afflicted by undiagnosed skin blisters.
The film was used as evidence on how a public hearing by the State Pollution Control Board was disrupted by Vedanta's supporters when people opposed the expansion of the refinery and thus contradicted the official statement which claims people support for the project.
Vikalp@Prithvi screens this documentary, along with two others. Biju Toppo and Meghnath's 35-minute award-winning film, Iron is Hot, tells the story of people surviving within the sponge iron industry in India.
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Though the film is on the astonishing growth of this industry, it focuses on the little benefit it accrues to the local people.
The third film to be screened is Ajay TG Before Dark (33 minutes). Through his eyes, see how Jindal Corporation has illegally usurped the land of adivasis and villagers, for its coal operations in Chhattisgarh.
Does development have to come at a massive human cost? And if it does, is it fair? Watch these movies and then answer that question.
ON: Today, 7 pm.
AT: Prithvi House, opposite Prithvi Theatre, Juhu Church Road, Vile Parle (W).
