On 16 October 2023, the Odisha Government in India held a public hearing referring to Vedanta Resource´s proposed bauxite mine in the region. In the morning, women from Banteji village who were protesting against the project were beaten up by police on the way to the public hearing, and during the hearing human rights defenders, who had been openly critical about the mining project, Dibakar Sahu and Jitender Majhi, were arrested.

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre invited Vedanta Resources to respond; their response can be found here. An additional response to the Resource Centre's "People under pressure: Human rights defenders & business in 2023" report is available here.