Maharashtra: The Indians taking on giant Saudi-backed refinery

“We don’t want this chemical refinery. We will not allow dirty oil from an Arab country to destroy our pristine environment,” says Manasi Bole.

She is among thousands of people protesting plans to acquire an expansive laterite plateau – flanked by cliffside fishing villages, mango orchards and ancient petroglyphs – to build the world’s largest petrochemical refinery in western India’s ecologically fragile Konkan belt.

In late April, angry protests erupted in Ratnagiri district of the western Indian state of Maharashtra when authorities began testing the soil for the mega project to be built by a consortium of Indian state-run oil majors and global giants Saudi Aramco and Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).