Indian energy giants Essar are to sue environmental campaigners Greenpeace for £96million over a stunt by activists last week.
Activisits abseiled down the side of the firm’s headquarters in Mumbai last week to unfurl a 72ft banner accusing the company of killing forests.
The protest was connected to Essar’s plans for mining at the Madhya Pradesh forest, but now Essar have fired back by launching a big-money lawsuit against the campaigning group.
“Essar House has filed a suit against Greenpeace India and others for declaration and consequential reliefs of injunction and damages in respect of several ex-facie illegal acts which have both civil and criminal consequences,” the company confirmed in a statement.
“The defendants have made certain imputations as a consequence of which immense damage has been caused to its reputation, goodwill and to brand ‘Essar’.
“Essar holds the defendants liable for damages and has accordingly, sought appropriate redress from both Civil and Criminal Courts.”
More than sixty activists arrested over the stunt last week were released on bail.
Greenpeace said the suit, for 10,000,000,000 rupees – around £95.6million – was a bullying tactic against an organisation funded mainly through donations.
“These are bullying tactics, plain and simple,” said Greenpeace India boss Samit Aich.
“Essar is trying to sue us for an amount that is multiple times more than our annual income, which comes from our committed individual supporters.
“Our protest at Essar’s headquarters last week was simply to draw people’s attention towards Essar’s plans for rampant destruction of the environment, forest, human and wildlife by coal mining, in the biodiversity rich forest of Mahan.”
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