ActionAid has applied to demolish St Paul's Cathedral to mine for bauxite to process into drinks cans and foil for chocolate bars.

We're protesting at plans by British mining company Vedanta Resources to open a huge strip mine to extract bauxite from the Niyamgiri sacred mountain in the eastern Indian state of Orissa.

Niyamgiri and the surrounding forest is the ancestral home of the 8,000-strong Kondh tribe. They worship the mountain - which they believe is home to their God Niyam Raja - and strongly object to Vedanta’s plans.

ActionAid campaigner, Brendan O’Donnell said: "This is a David and Goliath struggle. We’ve applied to knock down St Paul’s to raise awareness of Vedanta’s outrageous plan to destroy the Kondh’s spiritual home."

Official studies suggest that mining will lead to massive deforestation, destruction of protected local ecosystems and disruption of key water sources. Yet Vedanta has ignored the Kondh’s protests, and is proceeding with its plans.

O’Donnell continued: "Just as Londoners wouldn’t tolerate the demolition of their cathedral to make a quick buck, so the Kondh people won’t allow their treasured mountain and forests to be destroyed. “Vedanta’s investors should be appalled that their money is backing the desecration of a sacred Indian site and the destruction of forests on which people rely for food, clean water and a living."

We want Vedanta shareholders to use their influence to stop the project.

"People need and want development, but projects which threaten to deny tribal communities of their most important asset can’t be seen as a step forward," O’Donnell concluded.