Upholding injustice in Hasdeo — a blow to tribal survival, biodiversity, and the greater good

The Chhattisgarh High Court’s October 8, 2025 ruling upholding the cancellation of community forest rights for Ghatbarra villagers in the Hasdeo Arand forest is nothing short of a travesty — a calculated erasure of indigenous voices in favour of corporate coal barons.

This decision does not merely revoke titles granted under the Forest Rights Act of 2006; it toys with the very lives and livelihoods of tribal communities who have stewarded these ancient forests for generations, while greenlighting unchecked industrial expansion that masquerades as “development”. It is a stark reminder that in India’s rush for coal, the human and ecological costs are deemed expendable collateral.

Playing with tribal lives, livelihoods

Imagine waking up to find your ancestral home — your source of food, medicine, and cultural identity — declared a “mistake” by bureaucrats and judges, all because a mining lease predates your hard-won rights. That is the reality for Ghatbarra’s tribal residents.

In 2013, their community forest rights were rightfully recognised under the Forest Rights Act, a landmark law born from the struggles of Adivasi communities to reclaim what colonial and post-colonial policies stole. Yet, the District-Level Committee in 2016 retroactively annulled these titles, claiming they were granted “erroneously” after the 2012 forest diversion for the Parsa East and Kete Basen coal mines — operated by an Adani Enterprises subsidiary.

The High Court, in a single-bench decision by Justice Rakesh Mohan Pandey, rubber-stamped this farce, labelling the original granting “void ab initio” and suggesting cold cash as “compensation” for irreplaceable communal heritage. This is not justice; it is a predatory game.

The law was designed to empower local councils and ensure hearings before any revocation — provisions the committee brazenly ignored. Petitioners from the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti argued exactly this: Committees cannot revisit their own decisions without due process, and villagers were denied a voice.

But the court dismissed their locus standi after the committee withdrew, accusing them of “suppressing facts” over unrelated prior petitions. In one fell swoop, it silenced a community already battered by displacement threats. These tribals are not abstract statistics; they are families foraging tendu leaves, collecting mahua flowers, and practising shifting cultivation in Hasdeo — their lifeline.

Revoking rights without remedy severs this bond, pushing them into urban poverty or exploitative labour. How is monetising sacred groves “rectification”? It is a colonial relic dressed in judicial robes, prioritising spreadsheets over survival.

A dangerous precedent

The Chhattisgarh High Court’s October 8, 2025 ruling — declaring Ghatbarra villagers’ 2013 community forest rights “void ab initio” due to a prior 2012 mining diversion — sets a perilous precedent under the law. By retroactively invalidating rights already vested through local councils, it undermines the law’s core intent: Rectifying historical injustices by granting irrevocable title to Adivasi communities over ancestral lands and forests.

This “mistake” interpretation could cascade into widespread erosion of indigenous protections, interpreting legitimate recognitions as reversible errors whenever mining or industrial interests conflict. The law mandates recognition via democratic local council verification, followed by district committee approval. The verdict empowers committees to revisit and annul post-facto, claiming pre-existing mining diversions supersede rights. Logically, this contradicts the law’s supremacy as later legislation intended to override colonial-era forest laws.

The ruling also erodes the authority of local councils by dismissing procedural lapses — such as the absence of mandatory hearings before revocation — while prioritising state mineral rights. This weakens the powers granted under the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 and the Forest Rights Act.

Future recognitions risk similar judicial overrides, discouraging communities from asserting rights amid corporate lobbying, potentially leading to mass displacements without consent and in violation of international standards on indigenous rights.

Further, officials may hesitate to grant titles in “sensitive” areas, fearing judicial reversals, worsening the law’s already dismal implementation. This ultimately benefits industrialists, as seen in Adani’s Parsa mines, where post-2015 reallocations bypassed scrutiny. Nationally, the ruling could greenlight coal expansions across biodiversity hotspots, ignoring India’s climate goals and accelerating ecological collapse.

Sacrificing Hasdeo’s lungs

Hasdeo Arand is not just any forest; it is one of India’s last pristine sal-dominated ecosystems, a biodiversity hotspot teeming with leopards, elephants, hornbills, and over 200 medicinal plant species. Spanning 1.7 lakh hectares across Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, it sequesters carbon, regulates monsoons, and filters water for millions downstream. Yet, for over a decade, coal mining has carved out chunks of this green fortress — Phase I of the Parsa project alone diverted thousands of hectares, with Phase II cleared in 2022.

The court’s logic? Rights under the law do not trump “state rights over mines and minerals”, echoing precedents that treat forests as mere real estate. This blinkered view ignores the cascading devastation: acid mine drainage poisoning rivers, habitat fragmentation driving species to extinction, and deforestation accelerating climate chaos in a region already reeling from floods and droughts.

The 2014 Supreme Court coal scam cancellations were meant to pause such plunder, but the 2015 Coal Mines Act resurrected it, reallocating blocks like Parsa to the same players. By upholding the rights cancellation, the High Court has greenlit further incursions, dooming Hasdeo’s fragile web of life. Where is the “national interest” in torching biodiversity for coal that powers outdated thermal plants, when renewables could deliver cleaner energy and jobs without this blood price?

The real winners

Let us call it what it is: this ruling is a love letter to industrialists like the Adani Group, whose coal ambitions eclipse ethical boundaries. The Parsa project, reallocated post-2015, has chugged along for a decade, completing Phase I while tribals litigated in vain. The court noted petitioners never challenged the original 2011–2012 clearances — perhaps because they were blindsided by the promise of restitution.

Now, with Phase II underway, any hiccup from forest rights is swept aside as a “mistake” to be cashed out. This is not oversight; it is systemic bias. The Coal Bearing Areas Act and Mines and Minerals Act have long subordinated indigenous protections, allowing corporations to lobby for diversions with impunity. Adani’s fingerprints are everywhere — from environmental nods to political funding — yet the judiciary feigns neutrality, dismissing challenges on technicalities like standing or timelines. True progress demands accountability, not this charade. Industrial growth cannot be a euphemism for exploitation; it should uplift communities, not uproot them.

Reclaiming justice

The October 8 verdict is not a final defeat but a clarion call to principled action against this brutal assault on indigenous rights and ecological sanctity. To the resilient people of Ghatbarra, the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, and all Adivasi custodians: Your steadfast guardianship of this sacred landscape has defied immense pressures before. It is high time to pursue an appeal to the Supreme Court, championing the law’s core mandate of community consent and equity.

The ruling misreads the law as subordinate to mining laws, ignoring parliamentary debates that emphasised the finality of rights once recognised. Supreme Court appeals can cite Samatha (1997) for tribal land inalienability, demanding compliance reviews. Public Interest Litigations must highlight the precedent’s unconstitutionality under Articles 14, 21 and 244, urging a moratorium on revocations.

Policymakers should amend the rules to ensure irrevocable titles and judicial safeguards. Globally, advocacy can help press for reform. Without checks, this “mistake” interpretation dooms the promise of justice, prioritising profit over equity — a reversible error if challenged now.

To counter this injustice, communities and allies must demand accountability by filing public interest petitions exposing violations, particularly the failure to conduct mandatory consultations and hearings before revocation. Judicial review of the “void ab initio” claim must be pursued, citing precedents that affirm tribal veto rights.

Simultaneously, grassroots mobilisation is crucial — alliances with national networks such as the Campaign for Survival and Dignity can support satyagrahas, tree-hugging vigils, and documentation of human rights abuses for submission to international bodies.

Equally important is exposing corporate complicity through fact-finding missions into Adani’s operations, with reports submitted to the National Green Tribunal and Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to revoke non-compliant mining clearances. Policy reform is the next frontier: mining laws must be amended to recognise the law’s supremacy, new coal blocks in biodiversity hotspots must be halted, and communities must provide consent prior to any diversion.

Policymakers must honour the law’s foundational promise—prioritise indigenous rights and ecological integrity over extractive gains. A just transition from coal is both possible and necessary: channelling resources into renewable energy, integrating tribal expertise, and creating sustainable livelihoods that uplift rather than displace. Independent oversight committees must monitor forest rights implementation and halt ongoing diversions until compliance is ensured.

To the global community, ethical divestment from projects undermining human rights is essential. Amplify #SaveHasdeo campaigns, and urge India towards transparent, accountable commitments at climate forums. Hasdeo is an irreplaceable heritage, not a commodity. The tribal stewards who protect it are vital allies in our shared custodianship of the planet, not expendable obstacles. Their pursuit of justice is a universal imperative — for a world where human dignity and biodiversity triumph over profit.