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Tourist guides operating in Bandhavgarh say that one cannot visit the National Park and return without spotting a tiger—such is the density of the animal in the forest. The tiger reserve in Madhya Pradesh is home to the largest royal Bengal tiger population in central India. However, a coal block a few metres from the corridor that links Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve to Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary, located 225 km south, is close to being opened for coal mining. The 3-km-wide corridor that connects the two reserves and other tiger habitats in the region is crucial for genetic exchange and maintenance of tiger meta-population. It also helps curb human-tiger conflict.
Since November 3, 2025, the decision to allow mining of the coal block identified as Marwatola VII awaits approval of the Environment Clearance division of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC). Sources tell Down To Earth (DTE) that MoEFCC officials are strongly against mining of Marwatola VII because it could be devastating for tiger populations across central India. According to “Status of tigers, co-predators and prey in India, 2022” report by the National Tiger Conserva-tion Authority (NTCA), six tiger reserves in central India— Achanakmar, Bandhavgarh, Kanha, Panna, Pench and Sanjay Dubri— collectively hold 342 tigers, with Bandhavgarh being home to the largest tiger population (134).
The coal block under question spans 12 sq km in Sohagpur coalfield of Umaria district. Documents available on Parivesh 2.0— MoEFCC’s online portal—show that the block earlier measured 14.5 sq km, which included about 2.5 sq km in the Bandhavgarh-Achanakmar tiger corridor. Though the coal ministry removed the parts that coincided with the corridor from mining, the area under consideration is still just 53 m from the tiger corridor. MoEFCC officials say that except Marwatola VII and Malachua (more on this later), all the blocks of Marwatola coal mines are at different stages of approval since they hold vast underground coal reserves. Marwatola VII, however, requires large-scale open-cast mining—which needs clearing of trees and would be devastating for the ecology of the region—along with underground extraction.
Auction of the Marwatola VII coal mine was done by the Union Ministry of Coal in March 2023. On June 8, 2023, the coal ministry allotted the block to Rama Cement Industries Pvt Ltd, a Chhattisgarh-based company. Next year, on April 3, the company obtained environment and forest clearance as well as a no-objection certificate from the chief wildlife warden (CWLW) of Madhya Pradesh. A month later, on June 3, 2024, the coal ministry also gave nod ...
This article was originally published in the March 1-15, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth