How Adani Enterprises Engineered Tribal Consent for Mining in Protected Hasdeo Forest in Chhattisgarh

For over 11 years, Hasdeo Arand, central India’s largest unfragmented forest and the final surviving pristine forest, has echoed with the cries of resistance and been stained with the blood of those that have dared to face up for it. On the morning of October 17, 2024, the villagers of Salhi, Hariharpur, Ghatbarra, and Fatehpur discovered themselves in one more violent confrontation with the Chhattisgarh Police. Villagers had been pleading in desperation as historic timber—revered as gods—had been felled by Adani Enterprises to make approach for coal mining in section II of the operations there.

The newest skirmish is however one other chapter in an ongoing tragedy, the place growth’s value is measured not simply in acres however in lives, livelihoods, and a lifestyle that’s slipping via the cracks of India’s environmental and political conscience.

The video footage, shared by villagers, is disturbing: police in riot gear lathicharging protesters, chasing them via the fields and forests. Among the many injured was Ram Lal Kariyam, a outstanding activist with the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Andolan (Save Hasdeo Arand Motion), his head soaked in blood after a blow. Girls, standing defiant, pushed again in opposition to police shields with their naked arms. However in the long run, it was the bulldozers that received. Centuries-old timber, sacred to the tribal communities, had been minimize down.

But, it was solely in early 2024 that the Chhattisgarh Forest Division reported to the Nationwide Inexperienced Tribunal that 81,866 timber have been felled since mining operations started on this space.

The timeline is staggering. Between 2012-13 and 2017-18, 50,014 timber had been minimize down; from 2018-19 to 2022-23, one other 31,852 timber adopted. Environmental activists dispute these numbers. They declare that greater than 3.5 lakh timber have been felled since 2012.

Ought to the value of growth be paid by virgin forests and indigenous communities, who find yourself dropping their land, livelihood, and lifestyle?

The way it started

To grasp this, one must hint the story again to its roots. In 2010, a authorities examine categorised all the 1,898 sq. kilometres of Hasdeo Arand as a protected space. Nevertheless, two years later, in 2012, forest clearances had been granted below the then United Progressive Alliance II authorities, and coal blocks had been allotted in Hasdeo Arand.

In 2013, the Parsa East and Kanta Basan (PEKB) coal mine in Surguja district of Chhattisgarh was allotted to Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RRVUNL) to provide its thermal energy crops in Rajasthan. RRVUNL in flip appointed Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) because the Mine Developer and Operator. A three way partnership referred to as Parsa Kente Collieries Ltd (PKCL), by which AEL owns 74 per cent share and RRVUNL 26 per cent, was tasked with creating the mine.

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AEL started mining the area. It was the primary section of a venture that, because it expanded, would swallow an increasing number of land, timber, and villagers’ rights.

In September 2020, RRVUNL requested an enlargement of the mining space from 762 hectares to over 1,031 hectares. Activists feared that this might mark the onset of stage II of the mining operations, regardless of official statements claiming in any other case. As per RRVUNL’s statements, the PEKB mine would produce 137 million tonnes (MT) of coal over 15 years. However by July 2020, the corporate had solely extracted 61.1 MT, with a further 20.91 MT nonetheless to be mined, far decrease than the preliminary estimate.

The corporate claimed it had made a calculation error and mentioned that stage I reserves had been prematurely exhausted. This prompted RRVUNL to hunt extra land for mining, and in February 2022, permissions for section II mining operations had been granted though the protests had intensified by then.

In October 2023, manufacturing was halted on the PEKB mine, and a discover mentioned that RRVUNL had did not get approval for tree felling on 91.21 hectares of land. However by November 2023, clearance for a further 93 hectares was granted.

Growing presence of Adani Enterprises

The destruction is not only bodily; it’s deeply psychological as properly. As mining operations superior, so did the Adani firm’s presence within the area, which reworked from a distant company entity to an omnipresent native pressure. Crossing into Udaipur tehsil, one is greeted by the Adani brand in all places: plastered throughout road lights, relaxation stops, faculties, and even police barricades. For the villagers, the corporate is not only a reputation any extra; it’s a authorities unto itself. As Amar Saeed, a 33-year-old villager, mentioned: “Adani firm has the largest weapon doable that we can’t dare to own—the federal government.”

The connection between the corporate and the villagers is steeped in an influence dynamic that goes past the same old company hegemony. The model didn’t are available in as a mere mining firm; it positioned itself as a guardian of progress.

The sarpanches of Salhi, Ghatbarra, and Basen villages informed us how they’ve by no means witnessed such organised company intrusion earlier than. What began as a distant operation in 2013 quickly turned a pressure at their very doorsteps, with vehicles, staff, and firm officers coming into their fields and knocking on their doorways.

As per the settlement between AEL and RRVUNL, it’s the Adani arm that’s answerable for acquiring clearances for land acquisition, resettlement, and coal extraction. Earlier than section II started, staff of AEL had already began to go to the villages involved, making an attempt to persuade the locals to relinquish their land. All villagers claimed that they barely heard references to the State-run RRVUNL; as an alternative, it was the Adani model title they heard.

Manufacturing consent

The battle for land is a struggle for territory but it surely additionally works via calculated social engineering. The strategic branding, the co-opting of native techniques, and the reshaping of indigenous rights and native administration into problems with company governance are half of a bigger playbook. In Hasdeo Arand, communication between the corporate’s representatives and the villagers, notably in acquiring their consent, is a key challenge and one which raises deeper questions on company social duty (CSR) and its affect on native communities.

In keeping with the students Judith Verweijen and Alexander Dunlap, the central challenge revolves round “participatory” and “community-oriented” interventions below CSR initiatives. CSR has more and more turn out to be a company device to pre-empt and neutralise criticism with out basically altering dangerous enterprise practices in most mining areas the world over. In Hasdeo Arand, this has performed out vividly.

Take Adani Vidya Mandir, commissioned in 2013 in Salhi panchayat for kids whose households had been impacted by the venture. In 2018, the college shifted to new premises, inaugurated by Raman Singh, the then Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, and Gautam Adani, the chairman of the Adani Group. Nevertheless, a more in-depth take a look at the Adani Basis’s annual report from 2013-14 reveals that the inspiration had already, from 2013-14, been deeply embedded within the villages of Salhi, Hariharpur, and Ghatbarra and had initiated essential providers like teaching lessons, healthcare, opening financial institution accounts for farmers, and water initiatives.

The Adani Basis started to permeate areas which might be usually managed by State governments, subtly embedding itself inside native establishments. Over time, its presence turned so ingrained that questioning it appeared nearly redundant.

For example, the panchayat constructing in Salhi bears the Adani Basis brand on its board. The shift isn’t merely one in all signage; it displays the encroachment of the personal sector into what are historically public areas. With no seen opposition, it underscores how neighborhood symbols of governance have been quietly repurposed, blurring the traces between state authority and personal affect.

Moreover, since girls have performed a big position within the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Andolan, the corporate’s CSR initiatives have been geared toward involving native girls as a way to deflect their protest.

In 2018-19, AEL helped arrange Mahila Udayami Bahuddheshiya Sahakari Samiti Ltd, a cooperative of 250 girls throughout 10 villages of Parsa, with the said aim of empowering them via expertise growth and monetary independence. The cooperative engaged girls in actions resembling white phenyl manufacturing, mushroom cultivation, and cooking noon meals for Adani Vidya Mandir. In keeping with the corporate’s 2018-19 annual report, 56 girls had been employed below this initiative, incomes a median of Rs.2,300 a month.

Nevertheless, for ladies like Neeru Urrain, the promise of empowerment shortly changed into disillusionment. Initially, Urrain was drawn to the cooperative as a result of it provided a option to earn extra revenue throughout farming off-seasons. However as she acquired extra concerned, she realised it was a entice. “The cooperative was headed by some officers who mentioned they had been a part of the Adani firm. They confirmed us a imaginative and prescient the place we’d earn independently and broaden. We labored from 9 am to five pm, with solely quarter-hour for lunch. Our day by day wage was set at Rs.100,” she recalled.

In the end, not solely was Urrain not paid her wages in full however she was additionally taken off the rolls for protesting. Urrain claims this was a standard expertise for different girls as properly.

Such CSR initiatives reveal a deeper technique: the usage of CSR to create a story of neighborhood growth and engagement, whereas masking exploitation of native sources and manipulation of consent. For example, many ladies who got jobs as noon meal staff within the Adani Vidya Mandir informed us that the college would then “persuade” them to just accept the corporate’s mining proposal and quit their land.

Worldwide, firms, notably within the extractive industries, collaborate with governments to silence dissent and manufacture consent. The anthropologist Oscar Ulloa Calzada describes how firms now have interaction instantly with indigenous communities, bypassing conventional state mediation, providing what looks as if autonomy in negotiations however is finally designed to profit company pursuits.

Fracturing the neighborhood

One sees this sample taking part in out throughout Chhattisgarh’s Ghatbarra, Hariharpur, and Fatehpur villages. In Ghatbarra, the sarpanch Jainandan Porte, elected in 2020, discovered himself heading a deeply divided village. The earlier sarpanch was charged with facilitating widespread authorized violations to permit company entry to the village. The 2020 Panchayat election turned a battleground not just for management however for management over sources, with highly effective factions within the village backing the company’s pursuits. Porte mentioned that the corporate had dangled guarantees of big compensation, jobs, and a greater life to lure the villagers into supporting its agenda and had thus additionally fractured the neighborhood.

Actually, a type of extremely questionable groundwork to acquire sanction from the villagers was laid in 2017-18, lengthy earlier than RRVUNL sought to broaden the PEKB coal mine in 2022. Muneshwar, a outstanding activist, recounted how gram sabha conferences had been held ostensibly to debate village administrative issues however with the true goal being to coerce villages into consenting to the coal mining venture.

It was via an RTI software filed by Porte that the complete extent of the company and state collusion got here to gentle. The RTI response revealed that panchayat secretaries had been taken to a State visitor home in Udaipur tehsil in 2017-18, the place they had been compelled to signal paperwork approving environmental clearance for mining within the Parsa coal block. The gram sabha, which is required to grant consent below the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA), 1996, had not truly mentioned or accredited the proposal.

Actually, most villagers had been unaware of the gram sabha purportedly held on August 20, 2019. In keeping with RTI paperwork, the ultimate gram sabha minutes had the solid signatures of deceased people. The Panchayat Secretary of Ghatbarra, Gopal Das, denied the fees and mentioned the gram sabha had met and given unanimous consent to the proposal. “We’ve got footage and movies from the sabha as proof,” he mentioned. Nevertheless, he has not responded thus far to requests to share the pictures.

The blatant disregard for the Fifth Schedule and PESA has continued for years. The Chhattisgarh authorities applied the PESA guidelines solely in 2022, almost 28 years after the Act’s implementation by the Centre. This delay allowed firms to sidestep essential authorized necessities, utilizing each loophole accessible to realize management over tribal lands.

Violation of guidelines

PESA is a robust piece of laws that recognises the authority of gram sabhas in Scheduled Areas to make choices on land use and defend their conventional rights. In principle, PESA is supposed to make sure self-governance by giving gram sabhas management over their land, sources, and tradition. Nevertheless, as Jainandan Porte’s RTI question revealed, these protections are sometimes undermined by collusion between firms and authorities officers.

Below these circumstances, the supposed consent for coal mining will be thought to be manipulated consent. Many villagers had been both unaware that the assembly had taken place or found {that a} consent clause had been quietly added to the official data later.

The brazen violation of rights doesn’t cease with PESA. Below the Fifth Schedule of the Structure, which covers the administration of tribal areas, State and Central governments have a duty to guard tribal autonomy. A landmark case, Samatha v. State of Andhra Pradesh (1997), set a precedent when the Supreme Court docket dominated that land in Scheduled Areas, together with authorities land, should stay with the tribal communities, and any lease for mining or different functions needs to be given solely with their consent and due session with Central and State committees.

In principle, these protections ought to stop the exploitation of tribal lands. But, regardless of clear authorized safeguards, highly effective firms handle to override the provisions by fabricating the consent of villagers in collusion with state equipment. The PEKB coal block enlargement of 2019 appears to have been accredited on the idea of such manufactured consent.

Within the first week of October 2024, the Chhattisgarh Scheduled Tribes Fee, led by Bhanu Pratap Singh, held an inquiry that uncovered a chilling account of intimidation and falsification. A number of gram panchayat secretaries testified that they’d been forcefully detained on the authorities relaxation home in Udaipur for 10-15 days. They said that they had been held below duress by “state and firm representatives” and pressured into falsifying data. They mentioned they had been coerced into including a line to the gram sabha assembly minutes that claimed that the village councils had granted consent for the mining venture. The secretaries defined that this level, which appeared because the “twenty second” merchandise within the official data, was inserted after the assembly had concluded, with out dialogue and with out the data of the villagers.

In Hariharpur village, Sewaram Porte’s spouse was the sarpanch on the time. It was broadly identified that she was a figurehead, with Sewaram Porte wielding the precise energy. In keeping with Sewaram, within the months main as much as the gram sabha, he was below monumental stress from each the corporate’s officers and State authorities.

“They repeatedly tried to bribe me,” he mentioned, naming key officers. He accused Ajay Tripathi, who was the Sub-Divisional Justice of the Peace (SDM) on the time; Kiran Kaushal, the then District Collector; and the tehsildar of Udaipur of visiting his house and providing him lakhs of rupees to control the result of the gram sabha assembly. Sewaram’s private stake within the state of affairs provides a bitter layer of irony to the story. Just one acre of his property falls throughout the designated coal block, with the remainder outdoors the proposed mining space.

Kiran Kaushal is presently below investigation by the Chhattisgarh authorities for corruption associated to the unlawful granting of Forest Rights Act certificates to villagers in Korba, a close-by district, however no formal investigation has been launched relating to her alleged involvement within the bribery and manipulation of the gram sabha in Hariharpur. The inaction highlights the systemic failures and state complicity that permit such land grabs to happen below the guise of growth.

Sewaram’s account displays a a lot bigger and darker pattern: the place company greed and state equipment work in tandem to erode the rights of indigenous communities, bypassing authorized frameworks like PESA and the Fifth Schedule of the Structure.

Injecting a way of inevitability

Analysis reveals {that a} sense of inevitability performed an important position in diminishing resistance from the villagers. Firm officers seem to have used years of manipulation to foster a notion amongst villagers that their land can be taken away anyway, till some extent when it appeared higher to just accept no matter compensation or advantages they might get from the corporate reasonably than resist. Firm officers additionally seem to have sowed seeds of division throughout the neighborhood and capitalised on it.

One important division, as an example, was between the Dalit and Adivasi populations. In Ghatbarra village, the one village within the space with a Dalit settlement, tensions started to floor regardless of a historical past of relative concord. The Adivasi neighborhood started labelling the Dalits as “dalals” (middlemen) and “drunkards”, accusing them of complicity with the corporate.

Members of the Dalit neighborhood shared a unique perspective. A Dalit girl who has lived in Ghatbarra for generations mentioned her household had been concerned within the motion in opposition to the coal mine since its inception in 2013. “However the neighborhood by no means gave us the place within the motion that we deserved,” she mentioned. Dalits in Ghatbarra have usually owned little or no land, and the small plots they cultivated had been on forest land. Poverty and social marginalisation are rampant, making them particularly susceptible to the corporate’s affect.

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Jagrupan Kurrey, a Dalit man from Ghatbarra, described how officers would go to their houses with mithai dabbas (candy containers) that had money hidden inside. He claimed that he personally receives Rs.10,000 a month from the corporate. “They don’t say a lot however generally ask us to persuade different neighborhood members to surrender their land and welcome the venture,” he mentioned.

Leveraging the Dalit neighborhood

AEL additionally leveraged Dalits throughout moments of battle, resembling when timber within the forest needed to be felled. Firm officers would ask the Dalit neighborhood to intervene and diffuse the state of affairs. This successfully pitted the Dalits in opposition to the supporters of the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Andolan, with the corporate framing the protesters as those “stopping” tree felling and “clashing” with fellow villagers.

“Within the face of poverty, it’s troublesome to make selections,” one Dalit farmer mentioned. Within the 10 years of the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Motion, he mentioned, each chief or sarpanch who had approached them for assist ultimately disappeared, leaving them uncertain of whom to belief. “Similar to we’re being paid, perhaps they’re being paid too. Why are we the one ones labelled as dalals?”

In the meantime, the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Andolan continues its battle, however the helplessness of the native panchayats has solely deepened through the years. Sripal Porte, the sarpanch of Basen village, recounted a private expertise to the writers.

“We needed to construct a neighborhood centre for the village and wanted area for a rubbish dumping space. I ran from workplace to workplace—between the tehsildar and the SDM—however every informed me the land was not below their jurisdiction. The forest division had no solutions both. Then, immediately, individuals from Adani got here and provided me a small plot of land for the aim,” Porte mentioned.

When it was identified that the PESA provisions give the gram panchayat authority over native land choices, Porte mentioned: “By regulation, I’m speculated to determine the place to allocate land, and the gram sabha has to approve it. However at present, I’ve to ask the state, which in flip directs me to Adani, even for one thing as fundamental as an area for dustbins. I can now not make impartial choices. The land belongs to the corporate.”

As of the time this text went to press, the Adani Basis had not responded to our emails relating to the assorted controversies surrounding the Parsa East and Kanta Basan coal mine.

Shubhangi Derhgawen is a contract journalist and a lead researcher with the Visible Storyboard Group of the Centre for New Economics Research (CNES), O.P. Jindal World College .Deepanshu Mohan is Professor of Economics and Dean, IDEAS, Workplace of InterDisciplinary Research, and Director, CNES. He’s a visiting professor on the London College of Economics and presently a visiting fellow to the Asian and Center Jap Research Division on the College of Oxford.