Forest Cleared Without Consent, Chhattisgarh Adivasis Protest
200 Acres of Forest Being Cleared in Raigarh District Despite No Gram Sabha Consent
By Shefali Khan
June 29, 2025
Photo by Chhattisgarh Association for Justice and Equality
Hundreds of police and forest officials felled thousands of trees to clear over 200 acres of dense forest land Chhattisgarh’s Raigarh district on June 26 and 27 for a coal mining project linked to Adani Power. The operation took place without consultation with local Adivasi/tribal residents, which raises serious concerns over violations of forest rights laws and the sidelining of due procedures.
The land in Mudagaon village in Tamnar tehsil falls within the Gare Pelma Sector II coal block, spread across more than 2,500 hectares, allocated to Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited. While it is a government-owned mine, execution on the ground is being carried out by the Adani Group, which was appointed as the Mine Developer and Operator.
The tree felling began early on June 26 with over 2,000 police personnel, hundreds of workers and around 200 electric saws, and continued into the next day.
Local residents were neither informed nor given the opportunity to object.
A Congress party MLA Vidyavati Sidar, local leaders and environmental activist Rinchin were among those stopped or detained on their way to a protest site. Three Adivasi women collecting mahua flowers were also picked up.
“They left us in the village, but are not letting anyone go towards the forest,” Rinchin, a writer and activist working across Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, told Newsreel Asia.
On June 25, a day before trees were cut down in Mudagaon, the Chhattisgarh government launched a campaign asking people to plant a tree in their mother’s name. Even as officials promoted environmental action, machines were being readied to destroy forests that had stood for generations.
Villagers have opposed the mining project since 2017, and legal challenges remain ongoing in both the High Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
What is driving the outrage is not just the deforestation, but the way it is being done.
The Forest Rights Act, 2006, and the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas), or PESA, Act, 1996, require prior consent from Gram Sabhas before forest land can be diverted. PESA Act is a law that extends constitutional provisions of local self-governance (through Panchayats) to Scheduled Areas, which are tribal-majority regions recognised under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.
In Mudagaon and 13 surrounding villages, locals say no such consent was ever obtained. They were also never part of the mandatory public hearings linked to the project’s environmental clearance in 2024. The clearance itself was struck down by the NGT earlier in 2024 for procedural lapses. It was later reinstated without public consultation, while the matter remained sub judice.
One wonders if court orders are being reversed through bureaucratic shortcuts.
This isn’t limited to Mudagaon. In Hasdeo Aranya, one of the oldest and densest Sal forests in central India, similar forest clearances have taken place in the early hours of the day, just as court cases were pending. Gram Sabha resolutions have reportedly been forged. Police and forest officials have arrived without warning, accompanied by machinery ready to cut down trees before questions could be raised.
The pattern suggests a change in how forest governance operates. Large industrial groups are increasingly being given control over forest land for mining and other extractive industries. The process pushes forest-dwelling communities to the margins, even though they are the legal and ecological custodians of the land.
The development sends a message to other forest-dwelling communities that formal recognition of their rights may not be enough when state machinery appears to align with corporate interests.
For many women in Mudagaon and surrounding villages, especially the ones who collect forest produce, plant seeds and pass on knowledge, felling of trees is an attack on survival and memory.
For Adivasi communities, the forest holds their histories, rituals and belief systems. Sacred groves, specific trees and burial sites are tied to their identity and ancestry. Knowledge of medicinal plants, seasonal cycles and animal behaviour is passed down through generations and rooted in the forest.
Daily practices like collecting forest produce, holding festivals or performing rites of passage take place in these spaces. Losing the forest means losing memory, belonging and meaning. The land is not separate from their life; it defines who they are. What remains after the chainsaws are gone is displacement and disenfranchisement, not just deforestation.
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