Congress leader TS Singh Deo alleged extreme corporate favouritism as Chhattisgarh greenlit Adani’s Kente Extension mine, threatening sacred tribal lands and 4.48 lakh trees.

SURGUJA, Sept 1 — The Chhattisgarh Forest Department just signed off on the felling of 4.48 lakh trees, opening up the pristine Hasdeo Aranya forest canopy for a third massive open-cast coal mine. State authorities quietly approved the diversion of 1,742 hectares of dense forest land for the Kente Extension coal block, handing direct operational control to Adani Enterprises. It’s a calculated blow to Central India’s ecological balance and the fundamental rights of local tribal communities. Heavy machinery is already preparing to tear straight through ancient Sal forests to pull low-grade fossil fuels out of the ground. The political fallout across Surguja is turning toxic, and local resistance groups aren’t backing down.

And the corporate ties behind the deal are drawing fierce public fury.

Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited legally holds the coal block, but the state utility outsourced the entire mining and development contract directly to Adani Enterprises. Senior Congress leader and former deputy chief minister T.S. Singh Deo hasn’t pulled his punches over the backroom clearance. He publicly accused the administration of bending state machinery to serve the Adani Group’s commercial interests while steamrolling local tribal welfare. Singh Deo warned that clearing the Kente Extension mine directly endangers Ramgarh Pahad, an ancient, sacred site held in deep reverence by local indigenous communities. How can an elected administration justify wiping out an ancient ecosystem and sacred heritage just to pad corporate profits?

The decision completely shatters the political promises made to regional voters. In 2022, the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly passed a unanimous, bipartisan resolution explicitly demanding the cancellation of all new mining allocations within Hasdeo Aranya. The state government even submitted a formal affidavit to the Supreme Court declaring that opening new coal blocks in the forest was strictly unnecessary. Back then, officials argued existing capacity was more than enough to meet thermal power demands, but that stance didn’t last. Today, that same bureaucratic apparatus has reversed course to facilitate private corporate extraction in the region’s most sensitive ecological zone.

The expansion follows a well-documented trail of displacement and broken promises.

The earlier Parsa East and Kente Basan mining phases, also operated by Adani, swallowed thousands of hectares of forest and uprooted hundreds of tribal families who haven’t received adequate rehabilitation. When authorities pushed through the previous expansion, foresters chopped down nearly a lakh trees under heavy police protection while silencing local demonstrators. The Kente Extension block now threatens to decimate what little protected buffer remains. Activists argue the government is systematically carving up Central India’s largest contiguous forest tract into barren industrial wastelands.

They didn’t bother securing legitimate consent from the people living on the frontlines. Gond and Oraon tribal families depend directly on these woods, gathering Sal seeds, Mahua flowers, and minor forest produce to sustain over 70 percent of their annual livelihood. The Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan and local village councils allege that authorities forged mandatory Gram Sabha consent documents to force the clearance through regulatory hurdles. They argue the move blatantly violates the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, which legally empowers indigenous councils to protect their ancestral lands from unapproved commercial exploitation.

State leaders didn’t just sideline local councils; they ignored stark warnings from premier scientific bodies.

Comprehensive studies by the Wildlife Institute of India and the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education previously cautioned that expanding coal extraction in Hasdeo would trigger catastrophic, deadly human-elephant conflicts across northern Chhattisgarh. Their field investigations confirmed that open-pit operations will severely disrupt the core catchment basin of the perennial Hasdeo River, compromising water security for millions downstream. The state government had the scientific data in hand, but chose to proceed with deforestation anyway.

They can’t replace an ancient forest with a cash payout.

So indigenous groups are digging in for a protracted legal and physical resistance against the heavy machinery. The state administration hasn’t looked back, choosing corporate energy contracts over community survival and environmental protection.