Activists allege thousands of trees felled in Hasdeo for coal mining

Activist claim that thousands of trees have been felled over 137 hectares of biodiversity-rich forest in Hasdeo for the Parsa East and Kanta Basan (PEKB) coal blocks of Chhattisgarh.

PEKB and Parsa coal blocks have been allotted to Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, operated by the Adani Group.

Ekta, a filmmaker, activist and researcher, working with Maraa, a media and arts collective based in Bangalore, said officials from the forest department from Chhattisgarh started cutting down over 15,000 trees in Hasdeo forest, a biodiversity-rich area spread over 170,000 hectares, in a media statement. 

“The forest is home to many species of animals, including elephants, bears, reptiles and others. Economically and spiritually important trees like sal and mahua, which are sold for sustenance and worshipped as deities by indigenous communities, are chopped. They have been conserved and protected for over 100 years,” she said.

She added that though the official number of trees estimated to be cut was 15,307, local indigenous leaders claim many small trees listed as shrubs and bushes are also facing the axe. “It is likely that the forest department officials have already cut more than 30,000 trees and another 250,000 face threat of felling in coming days,” Ekta said.

Alok Shukla, convenor of the Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, said that while the protest continues to fight for the rights of tribals, it is likely that tree cutting in Parsa, spread over 841 hectares, will begin soon.

Shukla said that once active, the coal mining capacity in PEKB will be 20 million tonnes per annum, 5 million and 7 million tonnes annually in Parsa and Kanta respectively. “A total of 800,000 trees will be felled in the process,” he said. 

A total of five billion tonnes of coal is estimated to be sitting under the dense forest area. 

For the past three years, Shukla and tribal right activists from Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, Save Hasdeo Forest Committee as well as Gram Sabha leaders have been actively protesting the relentless tree felling.

According to news website The Wire, trees over 43 hectares were cut in 2022, while another 91 hectares were denuded in the same area in early 2023. Since December 21, 2023 more deforestation activities have taken place. 

The tribals and villagers have been repeatedly taking out protest marches and reaching out to the authorities and even preventing them from conducting deforestation since 2021, but eventually the authorities managed to initiate deforestation in 2022, Shukla said.

The latest deforestation marks the second stage of clearances for PEKB; the first stage included sanctioning of the open mine for coal extraction to supply electricity in Rajasthan and neighbouring state, Ekta stated.

Shukla said that their protest continues to highlight the two points of contention around the mining project. “First is that the consent shown by the Adani Group from gram sabha members including the Sarpanch are fake. The villagers have been saying that the signatures are fake and they cannot identify the signatures shown on official documents as theirs,” he added.

“We had raised the issue with the governor which continues to be under investigation over the past five years,” Shukla said.

The second issue, he added, is that both the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) and the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), in two reports, vociferously opposed the project, citing that it would affect the river Hasdeo, increase human-elephant conflict and negatively impact the biodiversity. 

The studies released in May 2022 underscored that Chhattisgarh is home to fewer elephants compared to other states and that a majority of conflicts are due to habitat loss or clearing of forests. Deforestation will only exacerbate the issue as elephant movements will likely increase in urban areas, the researchers asserted. 

More than 27 elephants have already been displaced from the elephant corridor, noted Ekta, and have made their way to National Highway 343.

The ongoing deforestation will displace and impact the livelihoods of 700 indigenous families from neighbouring villages in Surguja district of northern Chhattisgarh such as Sahli, Tara, Janardhanpur, Ghatbarra, Fatehpur and Hariharpur, she added.

The ICFRE study also pointed out the loss of the natural environment will hurt the means of income, culture and identity of the locals in case mining permissions are given. 

The study indicated that PEKB block provided “habitat to rare, endangered and threatened flora and fauna”.

However, it suggested considering mining in PEKB, Kanta Extension, Tara and Parsa with “strict environmental safeguards”.

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