October 2, 2025 – Vedanta’s operations across India and Africa show a pattern of regulatory evasion, local dissent suppression, labor protests, extractive land acquisition, and aggressive legal maneuvering. This report focuses on the Company’s ESG failures across India and overseas.
These risks remain underappreciated by institutional investors and ratings agencies due to their reliance Company disclosures, combined with the fact that most coverage being confined to local Hindi-language press.
Vedanta’s failures fall into 5 broad categories, which often overlap. No longer confined to village level disputes, Vedanta is losing the political support it relied on, with figures from both major parties now openly opposing their projects.
- Disregard for Environmental Regulations
Across multiple sites Vedanta has been fined or sanctioned for unauthorized waste dumping, unsafe waste handling and violation of pollution standards. The Company is responsible for water contamination, hazardous emissions and unremedied environmental damage.
- Labor Force Disputes
Vedanta faces strikes, wage protests and allegations of unsafe working conditions. Intimidation is routine and local police forces resort to violent tactics to disperse workers. These protests occur across the Group’s operating subsidiaries.
- Marginalization of Local Peoples
Vedanta’s projects encroach on local indigenous, farming or residential communities. Promises of employment or resettlement are broken, even if ordered by the courts or officials. Protests at Vedanta expansions have become a routine feature of its operations.
- Intimidation and Corruption tactics
Vedanta has used forged consent documents, manipulated hearings, and engaged in harassment of activists and communities. Courts and commissions have found repeated evidence of such coercion: this an institutionalized approach by Vedanta
- Failure to Remediate Even After Intervention
Vedanta routinely resists or delays corrective action even after regulators, courts or governments intervene. The Sterlite site is still contaminated years after its closure and BALCO failed to rehabilitate 46 households despite official intervention. This pattern of waiting out sanctions instead of addressing underlying issues is common across Vedanta’s operations.
The following case studies show how these failures are playing out at Vedanta’s operations in India and abroad. Together they show that the Company’s ESG framework is a PR facade, resulting in reputational damage and ongoing sanctions.