Bhubhaneshwar : With the seventh gram sabha deciding against the mining of bauxite from Niyamgiri, the chances of Vedanta Resources getting the raw material from the hills for its 1-million-tonne Lanjigarh alumina reifnery have become remote. Out of the 12 villages where the gram sabhas would be held, six have decided against the mining project. Phuldumer is the seventh village where a gram sabha was held on Monday. The villagers of Phuldumer in the Kalahandi district on Monday opposed the mining project. Of the 65 villagers, 49, including 32 women, participated in the gram sabha. All the villagers present reiterated that they can not live without the Niyamgiri hill range. They echoed that mining of bauxite in the Niyamgiri would hurt their religious sentiments as their reigning God — Niyamgraja — lives in those hills. The opinion of the villagers in the gram sabha was recorded in the presence of special district vigilance judge PK Jena. Earlier, the gram sabhas at Sirkipadi, Kesharpadi and Batudi in the Rayagada district and Polbari, Kunakadu and Tadijhola in the Kalahandi district had rejected the project on the ground that it would hurt the religious sentiments of the villagers. Meanwhile, the Niyamgiri Surakhya Samiti (NSS), the organisation of the Dongria and Kutia tribals of the area which has been spearheading the agitation against Vedanta Resources’ Niyamgiri mining project, has decided to hold gram sabhas in all the 120 villages in the area. “Even though the state government has decided to have gram sabhas in only 12 villages, we have decided to have gram sabhas in all the 120 villages in the area,” Prafulla Samantra told FE. Samantra, the original petitioner against the mining project in the Supreme Court, said the gram sabha could be convened by a ward member of the village as per the guidelines of the Panchayat Act. The ministry of tribal affairs has also decided to send a team in August to ascertain whether there are any claims from other villages, other than the 12 where gram sabhas are being conducted. A five-member team comprising MoTA deputy secretary Gopal Sadwani, legal expert Shomona Khanna, MoTA consultant Sreetama Guptabhya, and two representatives of Vasudhara (an Orissa-based NGO), Tushar Dash and Y Giri Rao, would visit the Niyamgiri areas from August 4 to 8 and asses the claims beyond these 12 villages.