Mumbai: The Narendra Modi government reportedly gave the Adani Group a go-ahead to clear about 3,000 acres of forest land in Chhattisgarh, despite the Wildlife Institute recommending against it. Scroll, citing two government-funded reports, has reported that the Adani Group was allowed to expand the mining area horizontally, stripping the Hasdeo Arand forest faster than necessary. Hasdeo Arand is one of the last unfragmented forest landscapes in Central India.
Two government institutes – the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, and the Wildlife Institute of India – conducted a biodiversity study in the Hasdeo Arand coalfield in north Chhattisgarh between May 2019 and February 2021, the Scroll report states.
The study noted that the mine had yielded a smaller-than-expected volume of “overburden”, or soil removed to access coal seams.
In the same report, the Wildlife Institute of India has also highlighted the ecological costs of mining in the area. It recommended, “Mining operation may only be permitted in the already operational mine of the block” – that is, the expansion proposal be rejected.
The Modi government had ignored the ecological impact while clearing the expansion of the mine in February 2022, Scroll’s Arunabh Saikia points out in the article. The expansion plan was met with intense pushback from the Adivasi community in Chhattisgarh, forcing the state government to put the expansion on hold.
These findings, Scroll says, add to the questions surrounding the Adani Group’s coal mining operations in Hasdeo Arand. The Adani Group has been excavating coal from the Parsa East and Kanta Basan mine since 2013 on behalf of Rajasthan’s state electricity generation company, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited, to whom it was originally allocated.
It is common for government companies to outsource mining to private firms. But the agreement between Rajasthan and the Adani Group is contentious, Scroll reports. According to their investigation, Rajasthan didn’t just sign up Adani as a mining contractor, rather it entered into a joint venture agreement with the company, giving it a 74% stake. The agreement dates back to 2007, when the Bharatiya Janata Party ruled the state.
Currently, the Congress is in power in the state. Regardless, Rajasthan has steadfastly pushed for an expansion of the project. According to Scroll, in September 2020, Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited wrote to the Union environment ministry, claiming that coal reserves had almost run out in the 762-hectare area of the Parsa East and Kanta Basan mine that had been cleared for mining in the first phase of the project.
“To ensure a steady coal supply to its power stations, Rajasthan government asked the environment ministry to expedite the mandatory forest clearance required for the second phase of the project, which would necessitate the felling of almost 2.5 lakh trees over an area of 1,137 hectares and would entirely displace the forest village of Ghatbarra,” the Scroll report quotes the government as saying.
In February 2022, while the Union environment ministry granted its approval for the expansion project under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, the Chhattisgarh government – facing pressure from a sustained people’s movement seeking protection of the Hasdeo Arand forest – put the final approval on hold.
Note: This article was edited on April 20, 2023 based on updates and clarifications issued by Scroll.