The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has accorded in-principle approval for the diversion of 1,742.6 hectares of the Hasdeo-Arand forest in Chhattisgarh to facilitate mining operations at the Kente extension coal block allotted to the Rajasthan government and operated by the Adani Group.

The decision follows the recommendation of the ministry’s forest advisory committee and comes despite a 2021 biodiversity assessment conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), which had recommended that no further mining be undertaken in the Hasdeo-Arand coal fields beyond the already operational Parsa East Kente Basan mine, The Indian Express reported.

The study had underlined the ecological importance of the region, particularly as an elephant habitat, warning that additional disturbances to intact forest areas could shift human-elephant conflict into new parts of Chhattisgarh. Official records show that the Surguja mining project will require the felling of around 4.48 lakh trees, including 97,837 trees during the first five years.

Authorities have approved compensatory afforestation over 130.6 hectares of non-forest land and 4,450.326 hectares of degraded forest land, while the state forest department has been instructed to translocate 67,414 trees measuring less than 60 cm in girth.

Coal extracted from Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited's (RVUNL) Kente extension coal block will supply the Chhabra and Suratgarh thermal power plants in Rajasthan. The block had been allotted to RVUNL in October 2015 for captive consumption by these power stations.

The in-principle forest clearance granted on June 9 imposes a phased mining plan. Mining activities in the first phase will be confined to 1,001.95 hectares of forest land over a period of 15 years. Extraction in the remaining 740.65 hectares under Phase-II will depend on the progress of reforestation and biodiversity management measures undertaken during the initial phase.

“Permission for mining in phases shall be subject to exhaustion of the coal reserve within the phase-I mining area boundary or completion of a period of 15 years, whichever is earlier,” the forest clearance document stated.

The Centre has also directed the Chhattisgarh government to implement a site-specific wildlife management plan based on recommendations contained in the WII-ICFRE biodiversity assessment, with the expenditure to be borne by RVUNL.

The Hasdeo-Arand landscape, once identified by the UPA government as a no-go area for mining, has already witnessed large-scale forest diversion for the Parsa coal block and the Parsa East Kente Basan open-cast project. Spread across Korba, Surguja and Surajpur districts, the dense sal forest region covers nearly 1.75 lakh hectares.

The forest land proposed for diversion under the Kente extension project supports rich biodiversity and provides habitat to nine Schedule-I species, including elephants, leopards and sloth bears.

It also forms part of the catchment area of the Hasdeo River and Bango Dam and lies within 10 km of the Lemru Elephant Reserve. Environmental and tribal rights concerns over the project were recently raised by the Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, adding to the continuing debate over mining expansion in one of central India's most ecologically sensitive forest regions.