PEKB project tree-cutting starts in Chhattisgarh forest, paused after protests

The PKEB project was cleared by the Chhattisgarh government on March 22, 2022. A fortnight later, on April 6, the state government also granted final approval to the adjoining Parsa Coal Block where tree-cutting started on April 26.

RAIPUR: The authorities on Monday started cutting trees in Chhattisgarh’s Hasdeo Aranya forests for the second phase of the Parsa East and Kente Basan (PEKB) coal mining project but had to put the exercise on hold after hundreds of villagers turned up to protest the deforestation in Ghatbarra village, people aware of the matter said.

Surguja Addl SP Vivek Shukla said the tree-cutting plans were put on hold after hundreds of villagers gathered to protest.

“We stopped the felling of trees to avoid any law and order situation since hundreds of villagers gathered. We will talk to the villagers now and make them aware that everything will be done as per law,” said Vivek Shukla, Surguja district’s additional superintendent of police (Addl SP).

The PKEB project was cleared by the Chhattisgarh government on March 22, 2022. A fortnight later, on April 6, the state government also granted final approval to the adjoining Parsa Coal Block where tree-cutting started on April 26.

The PEKB second phase project was been allocated to Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL). Mining in the first phase across 762 hectares of Parsa East and Kente Basan (PEKB) block, also allotted to Rajasthan’s state-run power firm, was started in 2013 and completed in March 2022.

The second phase of PEKB covers 1,136.328 hectares.

Activists contend that it will require cutting 2,42,670 trees in the Hasdeo Arayna forest in Surguja district.

“Around 250 trees were axed on Monday following which thousands of villagers started to protest. Around 3.5 lakh are to be axed for the PEKB project,” said Alok Shukla, convener of Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, which works for forest rights in the area.

The exercise was put on hold to ensure that the situation did not get out of hand.

Activists claim that the felling of trees in Ghatbarra village was illegal.

“The Ghatbarra forest was given Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights in 2011. Later the CFR rights were cancelled but there is no provision to cancel such conferred rights under the Forest Right Act 2006. The cancellation has been challenged in the high court and is still pending. Hence, the felling of trees is illegal as the issue of CFR has not been finalized yet,” said Sudeip Shrivastava, who challenged the cancellation of CFR rights.

“It is unfortunate that even after Rahul Gandhi’s statement in Cambridge signalling his disapproval to the state government’s decision to allow mining in Hasdeo Aranya, the deforestation started,” said Bipasha Paul, an activist working in Chhattisgarh.

She added that the mining allowed in PEKB (phase ll) by the central government is also under question despite legal cases pending in this matter in Supreme Court and Ghatbarra’s community forest resource (CFR) right cancellation matter in the high court.

Paul said the phase 2 mining project has been allowed by the government though the first phase ran out of coal much before the stipulated time period.

A biodiversity study in the Hasdeo Arand coalfield by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) last year recommended that mining should not be done in 14 of the 23 coalfields to conserve the relatively dense moist-dry deciduous sal dominated forest tracts that provide home forest for elephants.

Hasdeo Arand is one of the largest contiguous stretches of very dense forest in central India spanning 170,000 hectares and has 23 coal blocks. In 2009, the environment ministry categorized Hasdeo Arand as a “No-Go” zone for mining because of its rich forest cover but eventually opened it again to mining because the policy hadn’t been finalised.

Elephants have a significant presence throughout the year, and are an important part of a large migratory corridor. Hasdeo Aranya forests are the catchment of Hasdeo River --Mahanadi’s largest tributary- which is critical for perennial river flow. It is also the watershed of Hasdeo Bango reservoir and thus critical for irrigation of 3 lakh hectares double-cropped land in the “rice-bowl” state of Chhattisgarh.