Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot in Chhattisgarh with plea to mine coal from tribal belt

“If we do not get coal from Chhattisgarh, our plants will shut down,” Gehlot said while talking to reporters about the “unimaginable” crisis looming in his state. “We appreciate the regional issues here, but the central government allows mining after a long vetting process,” he said. “We are asking for only what has been allotted to us.”

In January, the Ministry of Environment and Forest granted permission to Adani Enterprises Limited to start mining in the second phase of the Parsa East Kente Basan (PEKB) coal block and increased its production capacity to 18 million tonnes per annum (mtpa). Mining would affect 1,136 hectares of the pristine forest in Chhattisgarh’s Sarguja district.

In 2012 the ministry gave clearance for the first phase, which was limited to 762 hectares and a reserve of 137 million tonnes—to be mined for 15 years at the rate of 10 mtpa. In 2018 Adani applied to increase the quantity and was allowed to mine 15 mtpa.

According to documents accessed by The Indian Express, in its first mining plan, Adani declared 47.2 million tons of coal to be unmineable. The second mining plan, submitted to the ministry in 2018, said, “Out of the total Gross Geological Reserve of 516.40mt, 52.15 mt geological reserve will be blocked in 7.5 m barrier and batter. Out of the 52.15 mt coal reserve blocked in 7.5 m barrier and batter, 15.65 mt has been proposed to be recovered by high-wall mining.”

However, the blocked coal grew to 54.99 mt by September 2020. “The earlier reserve calculation of 137 mt had missed some important safety factors for mine slopes and the reserve was calculated without considering the reserve locked in the working benches of the mine, keeping a safe degree of bench slopes. Thus, reducing the actual mineable reserve from phase I forest land to 82.01 mt, resulting in early exhaustion of phase-1 reserve,” the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam, the government’s power generation company, wrote to the ministry.

The details submitted before the ministry clarified that till January 2022, only 80.39 mt of the 137 mt coal were mined by Adani. Before the capacity increase, Adani was mining even less than 10 mt annually. After 2018, however, the mining capacity was increased to 15 mtpa, and coal production from the mine soared and met targets every year, the documents show.

“Almost 55 million tonnes of coal is being termed as blocked coal by Adani. It is clear that there have been violations of the mining plan. The plan was for 15 years, but the coal has been extracted in just eight years. If RRVUNL knew about the miscalculation of the coal reserve, why did it not raise a point earlier, even when they were increasing the production capacity? In fact, in 2018, they said they would mine 15.65 mt from the blocked reserve as well. It is clearly a case of hoodwinking the authorities and the general public,” said Alok Shukla, convener of the Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan working closely with the Hasdeo Bachao Samiti, a group of local tribals who have been protesting against the destruction of the forest for mining.

The Rajasthan government, along with Adani, has also got environmental clearance for the Parsa coal block, in the same region.
Residents of the several villages from three districts that will be affected by the expansion of the PEKB mines and the opening of Parsa mines have been protesting the move for years now. The tribals last year walked for more than 300 km to register their protest before the governor and the chief minister, and returned only when they were assured of action.

The villagers have started a sit-in protest against the mining project. “Our jungles are known as the lungs of the state. They are the catchment areas of rivers that provide several districts with water. We will not move from our land, even if we have to lay down our lives for it,” Eunas Morga, one of the protesters said.

“We have complained about a fake gram sabha, among other irregularities, but it has led to no action. However, they are going ahead to destroy the jungles for mining coal for someone else. This is grave injustice. We will not leave our land,” Sunita Ekka from Salhi village said.

The protesters are also angry with the state government as it pushed for the clearance for the second phase of mining despite tribals’ protests and points raised by the Wildlife Institute of India in a biodiversity assessment study. The institute called the human-elephant conflict in the state “already acute” and “escalating”, and warned that any further threat to the Hasdeo Aranya landscape could make the “conflict mitigation impossible for the state to manage”.

“Opening up of the demarcated coal blocks in the Hasdeo Aranya Coal Field would compromise the imperatives of biodiversity conservation and the livelihood of forest-dependent local communities. Even the effects of the operational mines of PEKB and Chotia need to be tactfully mitigated too, wherever possible,” it said.

However, since the mines are owned by Rajasthan, the only other Congress-ruled state, it has created difficulties for the Baghel government. Gehlot and his officials have written to several officers and the chief minister as well as taken the matter to the party high command. Gehlot wrote to Sonia asking her to intervene and the two chief ministers met her late in February.

Gehlot’s short trip to Chhattisgarh even as some Rajasthan government officials are already camped in the state indicates his government’s desperation for coal. Asked how Adani mined coal meant for 15 years in just five years, Gehlot said the power companies had all the details. “Still if you are asking, I will get it checked,” the chief minister said.

Adani Enterprises did not comment despite multiple phone calls, texts and emails.