With the more than half of villages voting against the mining of bauxite from around sacred hills of Niyamgiri, Vedanta Resources Plc's chances of getting the raw material for its 1-million-tonne-per-year Lanjigarh alumina plant have become remote.

The Supreme Court of India had directed the Odisha government to seek local residents' opinion on the plan to allow London-listed Vedanta Resources to mine bauxite from around the hills.

Seven out of twelve nearby villages have already rejected the bauxite mining project as many consider the Niyamgiri hill as a spiritual deity.

Siddharth Nayak of Green Kalahandi said, "People sue-motto came to the meeting and spoke against the project in their tribal languages. The whole Niyamgiri hill is our god and we will protect it at any cost."

Green Kalahandi is one of the groups that have long been protesting against any such mining project in the area.

The views of residents of the remaining five villages are yet to be taken. A government official said the process was expected to complete by August 19. But, as more than half of the villages have already rejected mining in the area, Vedanta is not expected to get approval from the concerned authorities.

Failure to get bauxite might force Vedanta Resources to reconsider its Lanjigarh alumina plant, which has already suffered closures several times because of shortage of the raw material.