Locals fear the proposed $760m project will trigger radiation-related diseases
It's an unequal battle in a remote region - tribespeople armed with bows, arrows and swords pitted against the might of state-run Uranium Corporation of India (UCIL), which feeds the country's controversial nuclear weapons development programme and national atomic power plants.
The battleground is Domiasiat, the abode of more than 100,000 people from the Khasi tribe in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. Formerly headhunters who were converted to Christianity by western missionaries in the 19th century, they still eke out a living from farming and fishing.
But they are doing so atop the richest near-surface uranium deposits in India, deposits UCIL planned to dig up to feed the country's nuclear programmes.
But fearing radiation-related deaths and diseases like cancer, leukaemia, tuberculosis, congenital deformities, impotency and infertility, local people have mounted a fierce campaign to block the ambitious 4.5 billion rupee (HK$760 million) uranium project, angering Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's government.
And quite unexpectedly, the aggressive campaign by indigenous people is paying off; their resistance has virtually stopped the powerful UCIL.
The deadlock has become an issue of power for federal authorities as armed tribespeople are refusing to yield a centimetre without bloodshed. 'Some people do not want India to progress,' UCIL chairman Raminder Gupta said last month. 'Otherwise, why are they chasing UCIL staff with bows and arrows and threatening to kill them?'