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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 envi-ronment 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 to the company for open-cast and partial underground mining. Finally, on June 19, 2024, Rama Cement applied to MOEFCC for diversion of forestland to start the mining process.
Nearly 88.3 per cent area of the 12 sq km coal block is under forestland, of which 93.69 per cent is Reserved Forest (a protected area accorded the highest degree of safeguards under the Indian Forest Act, 1927), as per a document submitted by Rama Cement on Parivesh 2.0. Mining activities will disturb 10.59 sq km of forestland, of which open-cast mining will be conducted on 6.52 sq km, states a 2023 report submitted by the company to the mining ministry. The report states that open-cast mining would require cutting of 152,922 trees and affect four villages—Malachua, Amgar, Audhera and Raugarh (see ‘Habitat at stake’) which have 396 land title holders under the Scheduled Tribes And Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition Of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
The village residents have not been informed about the mining activity and rehabilitation plan has not been prepared by the state government or user agency, the report says. “Considering development of the country and native areas, opportunity for employment to the local population and upliftment of their lifestyle, it is recommended to prepare wildlife conservation plan keeping budgetary provisions for wildlife protection and get it approved from the CWLW which will help conservation and development of wildlife along with surrounding population,” the environment ministry noted on the company’s mining proposal uploaded on Parivesh 2.0.
Since September 2024, Central and state ministries and departments have written to each other to grant clearance to the company for mining Marwatola VII. In its September 9, 2024 Terms of Reference, MoEFCC noted that the “Project proponent should take comments of NTCA regarding the tiger corridors adjacent to the lease area”. MOEFCC also asked the company to prepare and submit a wildlife conservation plan (WCP), which the company did. This was followed by a detailed scrutiny which was approved by the CWLW of Madhya Pradesh on June 3, 2025. NTCA, in its response to the company’s mining proposal, on August 13, 2025, said, “Bandhavgarh is high density tiger area where land tenurial dynamics of the species will result in spillover of tigers within the central Indian meta population complex. As proposed project site abuts an identified tiger corridor, the project proponent may be advised to seek wildlife clearance as per extent norms.”
The next day, on August 14, 2025, the company requested the Madhya Pradesh forest department for clarification on the NTCA comment. On September 9, 2025, the CWLW of Madhya Pradesh replied, stating that since the proposed project does not form part of any Protected Area or tiger corridor, as per the guideline issued by MOEFCC, “obtaining wildlife clearance does not seem necessary”.
Based on the response of the CWLW, the company, on September 18, 2025, approached the member secretary of Expert Appraisal Committee (Coal Mining and Thermal), MoEFCC, to get exemption from obtaining wildlife clearance. Considering the views of NTCA, MoEFCC, on November 3, 2025, decided to further study the issue. In its office memorandum, MoEFCC notes, “Since the mine lease area is located in very close proximity (0.053) km from the tiger corridor and has tiger presence, it has been decided to do a site appraisal by a committee before taking further action the matter.”
The six-member committee comprised CWLW of Madhya Pradesh; field director of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve; assistant inspector general of forest, NTCA, regional office, Nagpur (as convener); representatives of Impact Assessment division, MOEFCC, and regional office, MOEFCC, Bhopal; and representative of Rama Cement Industries Pvt Ltd. “The Committee shall study relevant reports, court orders, tribunal decisions, policy directives etc. with regard to proposal. The Committee shall submit its report within 15 days from the date of site inspection,” the memorandum observes. The report is awaited.
“The committee undertook the site inspection in December 2025. The report is under preparation and not yet submitted. The members are looking at previous such instances, whether approvals were granted, and taking account of studies and reports in this regards and may take time,” Anupam Sahay, field director of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, tells DTE.
The state government’s Tiger Conservation Plan (2023-24 to 2032-33) says that the Bandhav-garh-Achanakmar corridor connects two very important sub-landsca-pes—the Kanha-Pench population with Bandhavgarh-Sanjay-Dubri populations. “The forest corridor connectivity between Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve and other protected areas like Sanjay-Dubri Tiger Reserve, Achanakmar Tiger Reserve, and Kanha Tiger Reserve is of vital importance,” states the plan. It also notes that the corridor is already fragmented at places, which has confined the wild animals to a limited area, resulting in adverse effect of the gene pool of wildlife in both the tiger reserves. Change in land-use pattern and infrastructure, and obstructions in gene flow, may lead to extinction of major tiger populations, it warns. Officials fear that Achanakmar, which has a low population of tigers, will get depopulated once the corridor is fragmented and would not allow any scope for tigers in Bandhavgarh to explore newer territories once the carrying capacity peaks.
Another report published by Nagpur-based non-profit Landscape Research & Conservation Foundation (LRCF) in 2025, says that an NTCA analysis that puts the number of tiger corridors in central Indian and Western Ghats landscape at 27 is a major underestimation. Titled “Missing Corridors of Central Indian and Eastern Ghats Land-scape”, the report says that Section 38-O(1)(g) of the Wild Life Protection Act, 1972 defines corridors as areas linking one protected area or tiger reserve with another protected area or tiger reserve. Using this definition, the LRCF report lists 192 corridors across central Indian and Eastern Ghats landscape. “Our analysis revealed that the vast majority of the additional 165 corridors (i.e., 192 minus 27) fall within forest administrative boundaries. Some of the additional 165 corridors identified in our study have also been noted by other sources including the Madhya Pradesh State Wildlife Action Plan (2023–2043) and the Wildlife Institute of India’s study on the Koderma Dedicated Freight Corridor detour,” says the report.
It also adds that the identification of corridors is due since 2006, but not been properly undertaken by the government.
Another study, published in the journal Regional Environment Change in 2016, states, “Successful tiger conservation hinges on long-term, pragmatic conservation plans that go beyond increasing their populations within PAs (Protected Areas). The central Indian landscape is a global priority for tiger conservation, but is highly fragmented.”
The coal mining block is also one of the “No-Go” list, prepared by coal and environment ministries in 2010. The list refers to “unfragmented forest landscapes having a gross forest coverage or more than 30 per cent and weighted forest coverage of over 10 per cent”. Since then, the blocks have been phased out by the government, with the last one being in December 2025. In 2020, Delhi-based non-profit think tank Centre for Science and Environment revealed that since 2015, of the 49 blocks cleared for coal mining, nine were in “No-Go” areas. In 2020, of the 41 blocks put up for auction, 21 feature in the original “No-Go” list.
If mining in Marwatola VII is approved, the government would also go against a Supreme Court directive that prohibits mining to specifically protect critical tiger habitats from noise, dust, pollution, fragmentation and ecological damage. On November 17, 2025, an apex court bench led by the then chief justice of India B R Gavai, ordered complete ban on all mining activities within 1-km-radius of a tiger habitat or buffer area.
Apart from tigers, these corridors serve as crucial pathways for the movement of other wildlife. As per an inspection conducted by Rajesh Darade, assistant inspector general of forests, regional office, Bhopal on August 7, 2025, the coal block proposed for mining is home to leopard, chital, sloth bear, jackal, deer, muntjac, macaque, snakes, vulture, and sees only occasional movement of tiger and elephant. But the 2024-25 cattle kill data of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, accessed by DTE contradicts Darade’s claim. The data shows that tigers are very active outside the core, in buffer areas. Presence of elephant is also reported to be high. Officials say fragmenting the landscape will increase human-wildlife conflict.
The forest also houses flora such as Butea mono-sperma (palash), Diospyros melano-xylon (east Indian ebony), Emblica officinalis (Indian gooseberry), Hadina cordifolia (yellow teak), Madhuca indica (mahua), Lagerstroemia parviflora (small-flowered crepe myr-tle), Pterocarpus marsupium (Indian kino tree), Shorea robusta (sal), Terminalia elliptica (crocodile bark tree), Tectonic grandis (teak), Terminalia bellirica (baheda) and Terminalia chebula (chebulic myrobalan). As per an Umaria for-est department analysis accessed by DTE, the department’s officials inspected the mining site in March and May 2025 and noted that the damage caused by coal extraction could impact availability of minor forest produce, such as tendu and mahua, adversely affecting liveli-hood of people in nearby villages. The project is also likely to have hydrological impact on five nallas—Arar, Patpariha, Bagaila, Kolahra and Baser—in and around the Marwatola area, which will potentially affect natural infiltration and flow of percolating water in the subsurface strata.
Considering such factors, the forest department of Madhya Pradesh has already, in 2019, rejected the proposal for diversion of 283.32 ha of forestland/revenue forestland for open-cast coal mining of Malachua located south of Marwatola VII because it fell in an area with a high tiger and leopard density, as per MoEFCC documents. Officials fear that if Marwatola VII is approved, the comparatively smaller block of Malachua may also be cleared eventually.
Officials say the rush to pursue open-cast mining and approval aligns with recent policy shift of the Union government that allows Coal India Limited and other domestic producers to export up to 50 per cent of their coal allocation (from zero per cent earlier) to boost revenue and utilise excess, high-quality washed coal. As per a 2025 International Energy Agency report, global coal demand is predicted to decline by end of the current decade as the fossil fuel competes with other power sources, including renewables, natural gas and nuclear.
In its “Techno-Economic Analysis Report” conducted in May 2025, the company has explained the need for open-cast mining: “The opencast method enables access to all coal seams, yielding an extra-ctable reserve of approximately 82 million tonnes (MT) out of a total 188.7 MT geological reserve, demonstrating high recovery potential and operational viability. Whereas, the underground mining method, while considered as an alternative, presents major technical limitations. Several seams across the block exhibit thicknesses less than 1.5 meters throughout, rendering them non-mineable by conventional underground techniques.” DTE has emailed queries to Rama Cement on their willingness to pursue underground mining (instead of open-cast) near the corridor but no response was received till the magazine went to print.
“We are of the opinion that no mining should be approved for the block under question. Even if approval is given, it should be only for underground mining,” says an MoEFCC official requesting anonymity. The official says that a tiger or wildlife corridor is merely an indicative stretch created by scientists based on animal movement as reference points. “It is usually not linear as portrayed on paper and is primarily part of the tiger habitat. The corridor is also wider in some parts than depicted and should not be touched,” he adds.
“Any mining activity means bigger roads, which cause habitat fragmentation. Trucks movement and waste only adds to the damage. Human activity ignores and reduces the scope of revival of corridors. Anecdotal evidence indicates that nearly 50 per cent destruction of neighbouring land occurs owing to ancillary development. Wildlife reserves, hence, should not be mined,” says a Bandhavgarh-based environmentalist on condition of anonymity.
How the mining and clearance proposals on Marwatola VII have moved so far
June 8, 2023: Union coal ministry allots Marwatola VII coal block to Rama Cement Industries
April 3, 2024: The company obtains environment and forest clearance and no-objection certificate from Madhya Pradesh
June 3, 2024: The coal ministry gives nod to Rama Cement for open-cast and partial underground mining
June 19, 2024: The company seeks diversion of forest-land from the environment ministry
September 9, 2024: The mining ministry asks the company to take comments from the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA)
August 13, 2025: NTCA asks the company to seek wildlife clearance as per norms
August 14, 2025: The company seeks clarification on NTCA’s comment from Madhya Pradesh
September 9, 2025: The state government replies that since the proposed project is not part of any Protected Area /tiger corridor, as per the guideline issued from the environment ministry, “obtaining wildlife clearance does not seem necessary”
September 18, 2025: Based on the response, Rama Cement approaches the environment ministry for exemption from obtaining wildlife clearance
November 3, 2025: Environment ministry directs constitution of a six-member committee for a site appraisal and report within 15 days, which is still awaited
Source: Parivesh 2.0; Environment ministry sources
This article was originally published in the March 1-15, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth