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More than 2.8 million trees on forest land were approved for felling or recorded as felled between July 2023 and May 2026, a Down To Earth analysis found.
The analysis examined minutes of meetings of the Advisory Committee under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980.
Of 288 unique forest diversion proposals considered, more than 242 were accepted, an approval rate of over 80%.
More than 22,000 hectares of forest land were diverted for non-forestry projects across 27 sectors.
Mining, hydropower and rehabilitation projects accounted for close to 90% of the total trees approved for felling or recorded as felled.
More than 2.8 million trees on forest land were approved for felling or recorded as felled between July 2023 and May 2026, a Down To Earth (DTE) analysis of official forest diversion records has found.
The analysis is based on minutes of meetings of the Advisory Committee set up under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, and published by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
Based on an analysis of the meeting minutes, DTE identified 288 unique forest diversion proposals, counting each proposal only once regardless of how many times it appeared before the Advisory Committee at different stages, to avoid double counting.
Of these, 242 proposals were approved, resulting in an approval rate of more than 80 per cent, the analysis found. The records also showed that more than 22,000 hectares of forest land were diverted for non-forestry projects, including mining, hydropower and transmission lines.
Forest land was diverted across 27 sectors during the three-year period.
Mining projects accounted for the highest number of trees approved for felling or felled, at 1.35 million. Hydropower projects followed, with 0.93 million trees, while rehabilitation projects accounted for 0.23 million trees.
Together, these three sectors made up close to 90 per cent of all tree felling recorded in the forest diversion proposals analysed by DTE. The analysis also examined the size of the approved projects.
Of the proposals, 139 involved forest land between 0 and 10 hectares. Another 55 projects covered 11 to 100 hectares, while 35 projects involved 101 to 500 hectares. Nine projects covered 501 to 1,000 hectares of forest land, and four projects involved more than 1,000 hectares.
The highest number of trees approved for felling was recorded in Chhattisgarh. More than 0.4 million trees were approved for felling for the Kente Extension opencast coal mining and pit-head coal washery project in Surguja division.
The project has previously drawn protests from local residents over land and forest rights claims. DTE’s analysis also found that at least 84 projects recorded no tree felling.
In 14 projects, the minutes of meetings did not mention tree-felling data. The largest among these was the Sijimali bauxite mining project, spread over 700 hectares of forest land. The minutes acknowledged tree enumeration and the potential impact of felling in the area, but did not mention an exact number of trees.
“The DFO, Rayagada has taken up tree enumeration through Range Officer, Kashipur over proposed 564.581 ha forest land of Sijimali Bauxite Block of Vedanta Limited adopting direct counting technique,” the minutes said.
They added that, because of sparse vegetation on the plateau, the ecological impact of tree felling would be “minimal”, as the plateau's current ecosystem supports “limited biodiversity, with most species reliant on valley vegetation for survival”. However, the same minutes also noted that felling trees near valley areas could disrupt wildlife habitats, displace species, increase soil erosion and lead to sedimentation of nearby water bodies.
In an opinion piece published in August 2025, DTE reported that the Chhattisgarh forest department had recommended diverting more than 1,700 hectares for the Kente Extension coal block. Activists from the Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti and Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan have alleged that the process bypassed mandatory Gram Sabha consent in villages including Salhi, Hariharpur and Fatehpur, in violation of the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996, and the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
DTE had also reported in January 2024 that communities affected by adjoining coal blocks, including Parsa and PEKB, walked nearly 300 kilometres to the state capital to protest alleged forged signatures and fake Gram Sabha consent letters used to secure clearances.
The Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education and the Wildlife Institute of India had opposed mining in the area in separate reports, warning of risks to the Hasdeo river, increased human-elephant conflict and biodiversity loss, the report stated.
The analysis comes at a time when the country has witnessed several protests over development projects which are often at the expense of indigenous and local people of the region. Earlier DTE had reported between 2016 and 2019, over 6.9 million trees were approved for cutting by MoEF&CC.
