In Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo-Arand Rajasthan govt coal block granted in-principle forest clearance
The coal mined from Rajasthan Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited’s (RVUNL) Kente extension coal block (KECB) will feed the Chhabra and Suratgarh coal plants in Rajasthan. The coal block was allotted to RVUNL in October 2015 for captive use at these power plants.
The Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan had also raised environmental and tribal rights concerns with the government last month. Accepting the recommendation of its forest advisory committee, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has granted in-principle forest clearance to divert 1,742.6 hectares of Hasdeo-Arand forest for Kente extension coal block allotted to Rajasthan government and to be mined by the Adani Group.
The ministry’s “in-principle forest clearance” (not clearances) comes even as a 2021 biodiversity assessment done by Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Indian Council of Forestry Research (ICFRE) for Hasdeo-Arand coal fields (HACF) had stated that no mining should be carried out in HACF, except in the already operational Parsa East Kente Basan mine.
The biodiversity assessment had also highlighted the landscape’s significance for elephants and had stated that any further threat to elephant’s intact habitats could deflect human-wildlife conflict into newer areas in Chhattisgarh. The coal mining project in Suruguja, Chhattisgarh, will involve felling of 4.48 lakh trees, as per official documents, including 97,837 trees in the first five years of mining. Compensatory afforestation in lieu of the forest diversion has been approved over 130.6 hectares of non-forest land and 4450.326 hectares of degraded forest land. Meanwhile, the state forest department has also been directed to translocate 67,414 trees which are below 60cm in girth.
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