An activist who changed her name to that of a tribe in India threatened by a mining corporation, walked free from Edinburgh Sheriff Court today, after hearing that the charge of breach of the peace was dropped.

Last August, “Dongria Kondh” superglued herself to the foyer of the government-owned Royal Bank of Scotland, to highlight the bank's investment in Vedanta Resources, the company involved in a bid to open a bauxite mine on land sacred to the Dongria Kondh tribe. Whilst stuck to a table, she read aloud from a report submitted to the Indian Environment Agency detailing how Vedanta had illegally enclosed and occupied at least 26 hectares of Village Forest Lands, “depriving tribal, dalits and other rural poor of their rights”.

After leaving court Dongria Kondh said:-

“It is a relief that the charge has been dropped, but as far as I am concerned the matter is not over yet. I committed myself to keeping my new name until the Dongria Kondh felt their tribal lands were secure. That time has still not come. Although the mine itself was rejected by the India Environment minister last year, the tribe and other local people are still threatened by Vedanta's proposal for a sixfold expansion of its nearby aluminium refinery – which is already contaminating water supplies and blighting local land with toxic dust. This is not the sort of project RBS should be financing.

“I have already spent three nights in the cells as a result of my peaceful protest, and have had to bear the costs, and lost wages, of travelling from Yorkshire to Scotland three times to answer bail. But I hope it was worth while if it shone a light on RBS activities. It is a taxpayer owned bank, and should be investing in clean, green technologies in the UK instead of illegal, and environmentally destructive projects abroad.”

“ People can find out more about the Dongria Kondh's campaign against the destruction of their lands on www.survivalinternational.org.uk”.