In 2024, the Adani Group was given the go-ahead to develop salt pans in Mumbai for real estate. Warnings have been expressed about the environmental impacts of building apartment blocks on wetlands that are regularly inundated by salty floodwaters. The development will also displace families that have been harvesting salt from the area for generations. Impacts on an adjacent Ramsar-listed bird sanctuary are as yet unknown.

‘Adani yeta aahe! Humein khaali karna padega!! (Adani is coming! We must vacate!),’ says 52-year-old Meghnad as he loads a sack of freshly harvested salt on to the rear carrier of his bicycle.

It is a sultry day. Since the crack of dawn, Meghnad and his wife have been engaged in packing salt, heaped upon a polythene sheet at the edge of an expansive wetland in Bhandup, a suburb in the eastern part of the teeming port city of Mumbai. The area abuts an inlet of the Arabian Sea, where Thane Creek enters the marine environment. This marshy coastal land is ideal for harvesting salt.

Meghnad and his wife use the bicycle to ferry the packets, one at a time, to a lorry waiting nearby to transport the produce to a local trader.

‘I have clung to the work of harvesting salt for the past 25 years,’ says Meghnad. ‘But now that Adani has taken over these saltpans to construct high-rise apartments, we must vacate the area. This is perhaps the last year that we can harvest salt on these pans.

‘We have no idea how to earn our livelihoods after we leave.’

The work of producing salt is grueling. Even in the Mumbai winter, the heat clings to the skin, and beads of sweat drip down Meghnad’s body. His dark, sinewy form moves with practised ease, muscles rippling beneath his skin with every purposeful step. The years of labor in these sun-scorched fields have sculpted him into a figure of strength. His face, roughened by time and the elements, carries the quiet pride of someone who has endured countless hardships. His broad shoulders and thick arms tell the story of relentless toil in the salt pans, where each day requires the resilience to survive such demanding work.

Meghnad is a fourth-generation salt worker. Nearly a hundred years ago, Meghnad’s great grandfather migrated to Mumbai from a region called Daman, north of the Indian state of Maharashtra. From his impoverished hometown, he reached the big bustling city (then called Bombay) in search of food, shelter and livelihood. Migrant workers such as Meghnad’s great grandfather were employed in large numbers by rich businessmen who had leased large swathes of land alongside the creek from the British rulers of India for the purpose of harvesting salt. Migrant families have now toiled in these salt pans for over 100 years.

But, in a controversial move, the Modi government last year greenlit a huge real-estate project by the Adani Group on these publicly-owned salt pans, raising significant environmental and legal concerns. The development involves construction of high-rise apartments. The apartments would be part of the ongoing Dharavi Redevelopment Project, aimed at providing rental housing for thousands displaced by the overhaul of the shantytown. The Dharavi Redevelopment Project was awarded to the Dharavi Redevelopment Project Private Limited (DRPPL), a ‘special purpose vehicle’ controlled by the Adani Group, in which the Maharashtra government is a 20% stakeholder. In December 2024, the Adani Group announced a change in the name of the special-purpose vehicle to Navbharat Mega Developers Private Limited.

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The owner of a large coal mine operated by Adani in central India has sought an expansion of the mine from 5 to 7 million tonnes per annum. Meanwhile, many families displaced by the mine have been living in temporary, ramshackle dwellings for more than three years. Approval of the Suliyari coal mine was rushed through by the Modi government in 2021 and now the mine’s expansion is likely to get the same fast-track treatment.

Key facts and figures

• Coal block: Suliyari
• Owner: Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation
• MDO (Mine Developer and Operator): Adani Enterprises Limited
• Coalfield: Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh
• Coal reserves: 109 million tons
• Total geological area: 1298 hectares
• Forest area: 39 hectares
• Existing capacity of mine: 5 million tons per annum
• Proposed capacity of mine: 7 million tons per annum
• Project cost: Rs 386.20 crore (US $45 million)

In the Singrauli coalfields of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, Adani Enterprises has been operating a coal mine owned by a state-owned company, the Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation. The Suliyari mine’s go-ahead was approved in 2021 (after intervention by the Modi government). Now, the mine owner (with Adani’s support and assistance) is seeking to expand the mine’s rate of extraction by 40% and has applied to the reliably compliant Modi government for approval. The company has cited an amendment made to Indian environmental regulations by the Modi government in April 2022 in order to bypass the need for a public hearing about the matter.

Meanwhile, scores of families already displaced by the Adani-operated Suliyari coal mine await resettlement.

The 1298-ha Suliyari mining project, owned by a public-sector mineral development enterprise of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is in the Singrauli coalfields of central India where Adani Group owns a clutch of coal mines in forested areas. The socio-economic study conducted before establishing the mine found that 1386 households would be displaced for the project (See Section 54.8.2 (11) of document). Of these, 35% belonged to marginalised communities.

At least eight villages in the Singrauli district of the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have already been affected by the coal mine. These are the villages of Belwar, Bijauri, Dhirauli, Dongri, Jhalari, Majhaulipath, Mohanban and Phatpaani.

The Adani Group is developing a Resettlement & Rehabilitation (R&R) colony in Khanua village, a few kilometres from the project site for the displaced families as per the conditions of the agreement it has with the mine owner.

Locals say that a huge number of project-displaced families are still awaiting compensation for the loss of their houses. Allegedly, households that had been put up in temporary accommodation prior to the commencement of mining three years ago continue to live in ramshackle dwellings because there is no deadline for completion of the resettlement process.

Sita Prasad Kewat (39), a ‘project-displaced person’, told this correspondent that his family of four has been living in 'temporary' accommodation provided by the developer (Adani) for the past three years.

‘Our ancestral house was in the very spot in which the company commenced its ground-breaking operation for the mining project,’ said Kewat. ‘Our family was asked to move on a temporary basis to sample dwelling units built by the developer in the colony’.

‘Later, we were allotted a plot in the colony where we wanted to build our own house. However, funding for the construction has only partially been provided. Our house is unfinished. We continue to live in the temporary dwelling where amenities are far from satisfactory. The money promised to us to cover the cost of shifting has not been paid.’

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The Modi government has approved a 1.6 GW expansion of Adani’s coal-power plant at Raigarh in central India despite concerns about pollution and excessive coal-truck traffic by locals. Community representatives have alleged that fly ash from the plant, a toxic waste product from the burning of coal, has been dumped on farmland. Official statistics appear to substantiate these claims. This expansion is just the latest in the Adani Group’s colossal agenda to escalate its exploitation of coal in India.

Basic facts and figures

• Project: proposed expansion of Raigarh coal-power plant
• Company: Raigarh Energy Generation Limited (subsidiary of Adani Power Limited)
• Location: Bade Bhandar-Chhotte Bhandar, Pussore, District: Raigarh, Chhattisgarh
• Current capacity: 600 MW
• Proposed expansion: Addition of 2 units of 800 MW each (total expansion of 1.6 GW)
• Total project cost (including cost of existing unit): Rs 16,500 crore (US $2 billion)
• Cost of expansion: Rs 13,600 crore (US $1.6 billion)

Despite local communities registering strong protests on environmental grounds, the Modi government has approved an expansion of 1.6 GW in the generating capacity of an Adani-owned coal-power plant in central India. Added to the existing 600 MW, this will bring the plant’s capacity to 2.2 GW.

The power plant, located in Pussore tehsil (an administrative unit) in the state’s Raigarh district has been mired in controversy due to allegations of pollution caused by improper disposal of fly ash, the toxic residue generated from the burning of coal.

An expert body of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (‘the ministry’) recommended the expansion at its meeting of 28 November 2024. The minutes of the meeting, published on 4 December, say that Adani Power Limited has been required to ensure complete disposal of all the fly ash generated, without leaving any residues, as a mandatory condition on the environmental approval. Adani Power has also been required to expeditiously clear all legacy fly ash. No permission has been granted for the construction of additional fly-ash ponds.

The coal requirement of the existing plant is 3.25 million tons per annum (MTPA), which the project proponent has been procuring from state-owned coal mines through e-auction. After the expansion, the coal requirement of the plant will more than double to 6.6 MTPA, which Adani proposes to procure from its proposed mine in Bijahan in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. (See AdaniWatch stories about Bijahan)

Adani Power estimates that it generated 1.282 MT of fly ash in the past financial year at the coal-power plant and has told the ministry that the total quantity of fly ash to be generated by the expanded plant at full capacity will be 3.368 MTPA – an increase of almost three-fold.

The ministry’s expert body, however, did not deliberate upon the environmental impacts to be caused by the additional fly ash that will be generated at the coal-power plant. It appeared to accept Adani Power’s undertaking that the all the extra fly ash generated by the expanded plant will be disposed of as per the regulations set by the Indian government. Adani Power produced its own data (for which there is no official confirmation in the public domain) to say that it has no legacy ash left in the plant except for a small stock lying in the operational ash pond.

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The Adani Group’s plan to build a 3.2 GW coal-power plant in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has provoked fears of impacts on nearby tiger populations. The Anuppur thermal-energy project is located near several protected areas, including tiger reserves, and could disrupt movements of tigers in one of India’s most genetically rich pools of the endangered big cat. At least one conservationist fears that deadly human-tiger conflicts will be exacerbated if the US $4.3-billion project proceeds.

Key facts:

• Company: Anuppur Thermal Energy (MP) Private Limited (subsidiary of Adani Power Limited)
• Location: Chhatai, Majhtoliya, Umarda. Kotma tehsil (an administrative unit). District: Anuppur, Madhya Pradesh
• Capacity: 3200 MW
• Total project cost: Rs 36,600 crores (US $4.3 billion)
• Coal requirement: 13.3 million tons per annum (MTPA)

The Adani Group plans to construct a 3200 MW coal-power plant in Anuppur district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where there are concerns about its possible adverse impacts upon wildlife-rich areas known to be frequented by tigers. The government of Indian prime minister Narendra Modi has asked the project proponent, Anuppur Thermal Energy (MP) Private Limited, an Adani Group subsidiary, to conduct an environmental impact assessment before building the power plant which will cost Rs 36,600 crores (US $4.3 billion).

The proposal for the power plant comes months after the business conglomerate announced at an investor summit that it will pump in at least Rs 75,000 crore (US $8.9 billion) into Madhya Pradesh which is ruled by a government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – the same party as that of PM Modi. (Modi and Adani have often been described as ‘close’)

Public hearings for the project are yet to take place, but the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (‘the ministry’) has already received a representation that the power plant is likely to be a threat to several protected wildlife areas in central India. The representation alleges that the Adani Group is ‘trying to misguide the ministry’ by withholding information in its application form about a wildlife corridor which connects these reserves.

The ministry’s Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), which assesses the potential environmental impacts of thermal projects, took the representation into consideration while granting terms of reference for the environmental impact study. The sender of the representation was not disclosed by the ministry in the minutes of the EAC meeting, dated 1 October 2024, in which the terms of reference were decided.

The representation says:

‘The proposed project site falls in the wildlife corridor of Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve, Kanha National Park, Phen Wildlife Sanctuary, Sanjay Dubri Wildlife Sanctuary in Madhya Pradesh and Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctuary, Sanjay National Park, Tamoripingla Wildlife Sanctuary in Chhattisgarh … As per the report titled ‘A Policy Framework for Connectivity Conservation and Smart Green Linear Infrastructure in the Central Indian and Eastern Ghats Tiger Landscape’ published by Wildlife Conservation Trust, the proposed project area falls [in a] medium to high tiger-connectivity area’.

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In a move of dubious legality, the Modi government is allowing publicly-owned salt pans in Mumbai to be developed for real estate by an Adani-controlled corporation. The aim is to build blocks of flats for the thousands of people displaced by Adani’s redevelopment of Dharavi, a densely populated and famous shantytown in the heart of Mumbai. The outcome could be environmentally disastrous, with experts warning that the salt pans buffer the city from floods. If this huge development proceeds, floodwaters will be displaced, potentially inundating the premises of thousands of people in the financial capital of India.

Did the government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweak rules to hand over huge swathes of ecologically fragile salt pans to the Adani Group for its slum redevelopment project in Mumbai? Documentary evidence indicates that rules were modified by the Modi government in August 2024 to allow infrastructure projects such as slum redevelopment and housing for socio-economically disadvantaged people on Mumbai’s salt pans, despite the potentially disastrous consequences this could have on the city and its environment.

The rules were modified through an office memorandum dated 23 August 2024 by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry. As per earlier rules, issued by DPIIT in January 2012, land under ‘active salt production’ could be considered for transfer ‘for public purposes only in exceptional cases’. The new rules do away with this clause entirely while listing various activities for which salt pans can now be used. The earlier rules had also prohibited the transfer of salt pans to ‘private-sector agencies’.

Environmentalist Debi Goenka, chief of Conservation Action Trust, a Mumbai-based non-profit working in the field of environment conservation, told this correspondent that all salt pans occur below high-tide line and that any prospect of acquiring these areas for the purpose of housing construction could be disastrous.

‘Sea water gushing inland during high tide is trapped between the high tide line and the low tide line,’ Goenka explained. ‘The trapped water dries in the sun, leaving salt behind on the pans. This salt is extracted, purified and commercially sold in the marketplace.

‘With global warming on the rise, the first areas to be flooded when sea levels rise will be the salt pans. Even before any surface flooding, underground seepage will begin in the coastal areas. Any underground infrastructure, including water-supply pipelines, storm-water pipelines and sewage pipelines, will be the first to be flooded if housing projects are constructed on the salt pans.

‘This will be disastrous for the residents.’

The Modi government’s ‘office memorandum’ that purports to amend the rules pertaining to salt plans faces a legal challenge, with a public-interest case filed in the Bombay High Court. The petitioner argues that this type of executive decision cannot override laws that apply to salt pans, and that development of these public spaces will have disastrous consequences for the city.

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In the Hasdeo forests of central India, the Adani Group is expanding its operations at the contentious PEKB coal mine, despite the project’s failure to abide by conditions imposed in previous years. In September 2024, the Modi government watered down conditions pertaining to the control of emissions of coal dust at the project’s coal washery. In addition, the project proponent has failed to build a hospital, a condition imposed by the government in 2022, despite the deadline for completion of the hospital being February 2024. A prominent environmental campaigner has said that, ‘under no circumstances’, should the government exempt the coal-mine owner from its obligation to build the hospital.

Key facts and figures

Name of project: Parsa East & Kante Basan Opencast Coal Mining Project & Pit Head Washery

Location: Surguja, Chhattisgarh, India

Name of owner: Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (a public-sector enterprise)

Mine Developer & Operator: Parsa Kente Collieries Private Limited [Adani Group (74%), RRUVN (26%)]

Coal reserves: 452 million tons

Peak output: 21 million tons per annum

Washery capacity: 18 million tons per annum

Villages, population affected: 7 villages (Ghatbarra, Salhi, Kedmaforest, Kete, Mahadevpara, Parsa, Hariharpur)

Cost: Rs 2401 crore (US $288 million)

Current status: Operational and expanding

(Note that the name of the PEKB coal mine is sometimes spelt Parsa East and Kente Basan and sometimes Parsa East and Kante Basan)

The government of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has granted environmental approval for the expansion of an integrated coal mine and coal washery operated by an Adani company at the Parsa East and Kante Basan (PEKB) mine. The approval comes even though the owner of the Adani-operated mine has failed to establish a 100-bed multi-specialty hospital for people affected by the project, a condition imposed earlier by the government. The mine and washery are in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. The washery ‘cleans’ the coal of impurities before sending it to power plants.

Local communities are upset that the hospital has not been constructed, despite the deadline for completing it having expired earlier this year. The project proponent has made no progress in building the hospital and, in April 2024, sought exemption from establishing it. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (‘the ministry’) declined to provide the exemption.

‘Exemption from constructing the hospital should not be granted under any circumstances,’ Chhattisgarh-based activist Alok Shukla told this correspondent. ‘The terms and conditions set upon the project proponent for going ahead with the coal mine when the environmental clearance was granted were very specific.

‘The project proponent has not only reneged on the condition of constructing a hospital. A number of other terms and conditions have been ignored too.’

The ministry did approve concessions regarding the project proponent’s obligations to prevent pollution from fugitive coal dust.

A public-sector electricity company belonging to the northern Indian state of Rajasthan owns the PEKB coal mine which the Adani Group has been operating on a contractual basis since 2011. The Rajasthan power company is the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam (RVUN – which translates into Rajasthan State Electricity Generation Corporation). An Adani-owned subsidiary, Parsa Kente Collieries Private Limited, is the contracted MDO (mine developer and operator). Adani Enterprises Limited owns 74% of shares in the MDO company while the remaining shares are held by RVUN. It is not known what role, if any, the Adani subsidiary had in the mine owner’s non-fulfilment of the condition to set up the hospital.

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The Adani Group’s proposal to mine for coal under the ground in the Singrauli district in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has sparked concern in the local community over the mine’s possible impact on water, forests and wildlife. The Modi government has allowed the relevant Adani company to carry out an environmental impact assessment for the Gondbahera Ujheni coal block which is in a forested area close to an important tiger reserve.

Basic facts and figures:

Name of project: Gondbahera Ujheni coal-mining project

Location: Deosar, Singrauli district, state of Madhya Pradesh

Name of owner: MP Natural Resources Private Limited (an Adani Group subsidiary)

Coal reserves: 722.977 million tons

Peak output: 6.18 million tons per annum

Villages affected: 5 villages affected (Talwa, Devra, Tingudi, Ujheni, Majhauli)

Mining method: Underground

Mine lease area: 1926.246 hectares

Forest land: 461.777 hectares

Current status: Awaiting land lease, environmental clearance process underway

An Adani Group subsidiary, MP Natural Resources Private Limited, has proposed a 4.12 million tons per annum (MTPA) underground mine in the Gondbahera Ujheni block, which has geological reserves of 722.977 million tons of coal and was allocated to Adani Group in June 2023 in an auction carried out by the Modi government.

The lease covers 1926.426 hectares in five villages in Deosar tehsil – Talwa, Deora, Tingudi, Ujheni and Majhauli, including 1018.102 hectares of agricultural land and 446.367 hectares of government land. The project proponent has said that surface activities of the mine will be undertaken on 40.33 hectares of non-forest land.

However, the Adani Group has also sought the ‘diversion’ (which usually means the clearing) of 461.777 hectares of forest land, a proposal that is pending with the state government of Madhya Pradesh. The company has claimed that there will be no tree felling because the mining will occur underground. Nevertheless, local communities allege that destruction of aquifers by the mining process will deplete water intake by trees and degradation of the forest.

Environmental campaigners are also concerned about the impact of the project on the area’s wildlife because of the proximity of the mining lease to the Sanjay Dubri Tiger Reserve, which is around 22 km distant in the neighbouring Sidhi district.

‘It is a matter of fact that underground mining will lead to destruction of aquifers,’ Siddhnath Sahu (45) of Nigri village in Singrauli’s Deosar tehsil (an administrative unit) told this correspondent.

‘Any depletion or destruction of aquifers will result in water shortages for all types of vegetation on the surface. Owing to large-scale mining operations in the Singrauli coalfields, local water bodies are gradually drying up. This is affecting forests and livestock, and consequently the livelihoods of local people.’

The Adani company has told the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (‘the ministry’) that the land required for the project is minimal and will involve no displacement of the local population. However, it has also said that wherever private land is required, the acquisition will be negotiated on a ‘one-to-one basis’.

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Forests and villages that are home to people displaced by other industrial projects are earmarked for demolition to make way for Adani’s proposed Bijahan coal mine. In addition to these newer arrivals are indigenous occupants who have never been granted rights over the land that they have been tending for decades. Hence, they will not be compensated when the land is taken over for Adani’s mine. These are some of the tragic stories associated with the Adani Group’s Bijahan coal project.

Basic facts and figures

• Name of project: Bijahan coal-mining project
• Location: Hemgir, Sundargarh, state of Odisha
• Name of owner: Mahanadi Mines & Minerals Private Limited (an Adani Group subsidiary)
• Coal reserves: 327 million tons
• Peak output: 5.26 million tons per annum
• Population affected: 4 villages affected (detailed R&R study not yet conducted)
• Mining method: Open-cast
• Cost: Rs 2600 crore (US $310 million)
• Current status: Awaiting land acquisition, environmental clearance process underway.

Bijahan (Odisha, India): On a sunny morning in Bhograkachhar, Puni Amaat, an old tribal woman, found solace in a quiet alcove on the porch of her timeworn home. The dilapidated house, with the plaster of its walls peeling off, held countless memories. The precincts of the entrance to the house were impeccably clean. Puni sat with a baby goat nestled in her lap, its soft bleats reverberating in the morning’s calmness. She gently rocked the goat, whispering tenderly into its ears. The animal tugged playfully with the loose end of Puni’s dark green headscarf.

Puni’s hearing was noticeably diminished: she frequently needed questions repeated. Her memory, too, was failing her. She could not remember her exact age but seemed to be in her early 80s. Her responses to my queries, which she tried to convey in her own dialect, were marked by long pauses and regular drifts into confusion. Her movements were slow. Her skin, deeply ruddy and weathered, bore the marks of a life lived with nature. Her arms, tattooed with tribal motifs, demonstrated the active life that she must have lived to nurture her family in this hamlet within the forested area of Bijahan. Her whole appearance spoke of years spent under the open sky, harvesting the bounty of the land that surrounded her village. A gentle smile graced her face. It reminded me of my granduncle, who endured Parkinson’s disease with a similar unwavering calm until his death, the serene smile more a reflection of his failing memory than of happiness.

Dani Amaat, her husband, mirrored the rugged resilience of Puni. When we met him, he was sitting on the ground across the dirt track that meandered past their home, his frail, weather-beaten frame a testament to decades of hardship. He seemed to be in his mid-80s. Dark pockmarks on his bare chest and arms were the result of a severe childhood bout of smallpox. Dani’s memories stretched back nearly 70 years to when he migrated from the neighboring state of Chhattisgarh (well before it was carved out as a separate province from the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh), seeking a new start with better opportunities in Odisha.

‘We used to live a very difficult life in our ancestral village in Lailunga in Chhattisgarh,’ Dani began slowly, adding, ‘There was hardly any livelihood. My offspring did not survive. We thought it wise to move to a new place for a new beginning. The forests in this area, where we ultimately settled, offered abundant resources for free. We also took up farming in minor patches in clearings within the forest. Our lives flourished.’

Together, Puni and Dani spend their lives drawing sustenance from the land, farming and gathering minor resources from the forest. Trees such as Chaar (Cuddapah Almond), Mahua (a tree whose buds are collected to ferment a heady liquor) and Tendu (its leaves are used to roll traditional Indian cigars called beedis while it also produces an edible fruit) provide resources that can be sustainably used. There are clusters of wild bamboo, mango trees and dozens of other varieties of medicinal trees, plants and herbs.

The elderly couple’s four sons initially followed in their footsteps, relying on these natural resources for their livelihoods. However, with the rapid advance of industrial projects and mining in this region, these young men have abandoned their ancestral practices. They work as daily wage laborers in nearby construction sites and mines. The family obtains free foodgrains from the Odisha state government. Puni and Amaat have no inkling that their village and the forests around it will be obliterated for Adani’s Bijahan coal mine.

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In India’s most populous state, the Adani Group plans to build a large new coal-power plant in an area rich in wildlife. In response, India’s environmental court has initiated a case to consider the proposal’s impacts. Meanwhile, the Modi government has given the go-ahead for the Adani company concerned to prepare an environmental impact statement – a major first step in getting the project approved. Approval for an earlier proposal for a coal-power plant here by a different company was quashed in 2016. The area as a whole is home to varied species, including sloth bears, leopards, crocodiles, owls, vultures and eagles.

Basic facts and figures

• Name of project: Mirzapur Thermal Power Plant
• Location: Dadri Khurd village, Mirzapur district, Uttar Pradesh, India
• Name of owner: Mirzapur Thermal Energy (UP) Private Limited (an Adani Group subsidiary)
• Project site area: 365.19 hectares
• Capacity of power plant: 2 X 800 Mega Watts (MW)
• Coal requirement: 6.4 million tons per annum
• Villages, population affected: One village (Dadri Khurd); Adani Group claims no population will be affected
• Cost: Rs 18,300 crore (US $2.2 billion)
• Current status: Statutory clearances yet to be granted

A wooded, wildlife-rich parcel of land in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh is earmarked for an Adani coal-power plant despite findings that the area is rich in endemic fauna. The state government of Uttar Pradesh recorded it as forest land in a Gazette notification issued more than 75 years ago.

India’s premier environmental court, the National Green Tribunal (‘the tribunal’), on its own initiative, has registered a case concerning this project and issued notices to the governments of Uttar Pradesh and India. The Modi government earlier allowed the project proponent, Adani Group subsidiary Mirzapur Thermal Energy (UP) Private Limited, to prepare an environmental impact assessment for the proposed power plant. The government subsequently said in the Parliament of India that the power plant involves no forest land as per the proposal submitted by Adani Group.

The land, occupying 365 hectares, is in the precinct of Dadri Khurd village of Mirzapur district in the southeastern region of Uttar Pradesh. The district shares its borders with the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh and is close to three other states – Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh. The Adani Group proposes to develop a 1600 MW power plant here at a cost of Rs 18,300 crore (US $2.2 billion). The site is roughly 150m km from the Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh where the Adani Group owns several coal blocks. The power plant will require approximately 6.4 million tons of coal per annum; Adani’s coal mines in Singrauli could possibly meet this requirement.

What local communities say

In late June 2024, members of the community at Dadri Khurd alleged that heavy machinery was rapidly flattening forest at the construction site, presumably to enable construction work on the power plant to begin. Many years ago, an attempt by another Indian multinational conglomerate, the Welspun Group, to construct a power plant in the area was staved off by a group of conservationists and academics when they filed a petition with the tribunal.

Locals were therefore surprised when construction work commenced again this year. Following inquiries, they learnt that the Modi government had allowed the Adani Group to carry out an environmental impact assessment for a new power project in the area. Statutory approvals for the clearing of forest had yet to be granted for the project.

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An Adani company’s plan to expand the capacity of a coal-power plant in the Indian state of Chhattisgarh has worried the local people, who have already been hard hit by pollution from nearby mines and coal-power plants. In July 2024, at a formal public hearing about the proposed expansion of Adani’s power plant near Raigarh, villagers protested against the project. The expanded plant will generate up to 4 million tonnes of coal-ash residues each year. Meanwhile, the Adani company concerned has been fined US $740,000 for polluting the area through trucking of coal on local roads.

Basic facts and figures

• Name of project: Raigarh Thermal Power Plant
• Owner: Raigarh Energy Generation Limited (subsidiary of Adani Power Limited)
• Location: Bade Bhandar – Chhotte Bhandar, Pussore, District: Raigarh, Chhattisgarh
• Capacity: 600 MW
• Proposed Expansion: Addition of 2 units of 800 MW each (total expansion of 1.6 GW)
• Total project cost (including cost of existing unit): Rs 16,500 crore (US $2 billion)
• Cost of expansion: Rs 13,600 crore (US $1.6 billion)
• Status: Operational (expansion pending)

A significant section of the local community of Raigarh in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh has expressed grave reservations about the proposed expansion of an Adani-owned coal-fired power plant. In a public hearing held on 12 July 2024, hundreds of local people who will be affected by the project registered strong protests against the expansion on the grounds that it will lead to an increase in generation of toxic fly ash, posing an ecological threat to the region.

Raigarh is already suffering the impacts of toxic fly ash as well as other pollution due to the many coal-power plants and coal mines in the district. The hearing pertained to the proposed expansion of Adani’s 600MW coal-based power plant in Pussore tehsil (an administrative unit). The business conglomerate is looking to expand the project to 2200 MW by the addition of two units of 800 MW each – an expansion of over 250%. In August 2023, the Modi government gave the go-ahead for the Adani Group subsidiary, Adani Power Limited, to carry out a study to assess the potential environmental impacts of the expansion, proposed at a cost of Rs 13,600 crores (US $1.6 billion).

‘Most areas of the district are already reeling under environmental pollution caused by existing thermal plants and coal mines,’ Raigarh-based campaigner, Rajesh Tripathy, told this correspondent. ‘Fly ash that is generated from burning of coal is disposed of recklessly by almost all thermal power plants here.

‘There have been instances when we have witnessed dumping of fly ash into the confluence of two major rivers of the region. We have complained to the local administration but there is no monitoring.’

At least four villages – Chhote Bhandar, Bade Bhandar, Sarvani and Mali Bhanuna – will be directly affected by the expansion. The total area of the project is 355.71 hectares, including the existing facility of 600 MW. The rivers Mahanadi and its tributary Mand flow near the project site. While the Mahanadi River is 3.5 km south of the project site, the Mand River is just 1.4 km south-west.

‘An increase in coal consumption in the plant will increase fly-ash generation and the consequent pollution’ said Tripathy. ‘Not only have farming and forest yield been depleted due to the menace of fly ash, but water bodies have also been affected.

‘The livelihood of the district’s entire population, beyond the four affected villages, is at stake. The government should have waited for the results of a current study to determine whether Raigarh can bear the load of pollution from more developments before embarking on environmental approval for the coal plant’s expansion.’

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Around the fringes of a huge Adani-operated coal mine in India, the local people maintain a daily battle for survival. Fugitive emissions of coal dust from convoys of coal trucks have coated their dwellings and crops. Pastures lie abandoned and streams have been polluted. The people have not received compensation because their lands were not taken over by the coal company. The houses shake when blasting takes place at the nearby mine, as if to emphasise the precariousness of these people's continued existence here.

Basic facts and figures

• Name of project: Talabira II & III Opencast Coal Mining Project
• Location: Sambalpur and Jharsuguda, Odisha, India
• Name of owner: NLC India Limited (a public-sector enterprise)
• Mine Developer & Operator: Talabira (Odisha) Mining Private Limited (an Adani Group subsidiary)
• Coal reserves: 589.21 million tons
• Peak output: 23 million tons per annum
• Villages, population affected: 5 villages (Rampur, Malda, Patrapali, Talabira, Khinda); 2973 families
• Cost: Rs 2401 crore (US $288 million)
• Current status: Operational as of December 2019; expansions expected

Talabira: The highway connecting Sambalpur and Jharsuguda, two industrial cities in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, is yet to come to life when we drive to the Adani-operated Talabira II & III coal mine. The cool morning breeze betrays no hint of the ongoing peak summer season. The sun is still low in the sky. Tall trees, known locally as Palash or ‘flame of the forest’, dot the landscape, their blooms splashing the morning with fiery bursts of red against the backdrop of the waking countryside.

The serene and picturesque surroundings fade into desolation as we reach a junction from which a bitumen road branches off the highway into Khinda, a village hit hard by the Adani mine. From this junction onwards, shabby eateries, soot-covered garages, dinghy tea stalls and snack vendors fight for space along a small section of the road. Trucks for transporting coal have been parked overnight along the highway leaving hardly any space for other vehicles to move. Our car crawls for several minutes to reach the junction of the coal-transportation road.

More trucks – hundreds of them – are parked along the coal-transportation road as we branch off the highway towards the mine. The wheels of our car crunch against the gravel of the road. Along either side of the road, everything is cloaked beneath a thick blanket of coal dust. The vegetation seems to be gasping for breath, struggling under the weight of the oppressive conditions. Not a single water sprinkler can be seen to settle the fugitive coal dust hanging in the air. The only bit of dust suppression occurs at the load-dispatch gate of the mine, where a patch of the road is covered in slush.

As the day progresses, the trucks grind to life and rumble towards the mine like huge, hungry monsters. A few men seated under a canopy hand out orange-colored slips to the truck drivers before they enter the mine. We stop at a tea shop, the only other sign of human activity along the road. Its owner, who identifies himself as Situ Rout (57), is rolling open the steel shutters of the shop. The shop’s exterior is weathered by dust.

‘Coal dust is all there is to this place now,’ said Rout, dusting away layers of dust settled on wafer packets and plastic jars containing cookies. ‘It’s in our food, in our water, everywhere.’

The settlement of Demulpada, with its two dozen households, lies behind Rout’s tea shop. When the coal-transportation road was constructed a few years ago, this settlement was left untouched by NLC India Limited, the public-sector enterprise that owns the Talabira II & III coal block.

‘It is our misfortune that our houses were left alone,’ said Rout. ‘We are forced to bear the full brunt of the massive air pollution caused by road transportation of coal.’

Rout told how Demulpada used to be a self-sufficient village surrounded by green forests which produced abundant fruits, flowers, seeds and timber. Just metres in front of his shop, trucks rolled by as he talked.

‘The majority of families in Demulpada, including my own household, used to depend on farming a variety of crops. Now, agriculture is gone because of the pollution,’ continued Rout. ‘For me, the only way to eke out a living was to set up this tea stall. Earnings have been good because most truck drivers stop by to have a quick cup of tea or a snack. But I inhale toxic coal dust all day long. It has been a curse’.

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Community campaigners fear that a review of a controversial coal project in central-eastern India will overturn a previous ruling that prevented the mine from proceeding. Approval for the proposed coal mine, known as Gare Pelma II, was quashed in January 2024 when India’s primary environmental court said that locals, including tribal people, had been sidelined during a mandatory consultation process. Despite the ruling, it appears that a committee appointed by the Modi government is reviewing the approval process for the coal project, and may try to clear it of previous irregularities, enabling the coal mine to proceed. This is a recipe for the issue to end up back in the courts.

Key details of the project:

• Name: Gare Pelma II
• Owned by: Mahagenco
• Adani subsidiary (mine developer and operator): Gare Pelma II Collieries Private Limited 
• Location: Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, India 
• Coal reserves: 1059.29 million tonnes 
• Planned output per annum: 23.6 million tonnes per annum
• Cost: US $902 million 
• Current status: Environmental approval overturned 
• Area of impact: 14 villages, farmland, forest, water resources and up to 2245 families

In January 2024, India’s primary environmental court, the National Green Tribunal (NGT), quashed the environmental approval for the Gare Pelma II coal project because there had been inadequate consultation with the local community. The tribunal also found that health risks to local communities from the cumulative environmental impact of the project had not been properly assessed. The area in which the project lies has already been detrimentally impacted by large-scale pollution from existing mines and coal-power plants. The project involves an investment of over US $900 million.

Now, the Modi government has directed a hand-picked committee to review the rejected approval, rather than to insist that Adani and the owner of the coal deposit go back to square one. Local people are concerned that the same approval process that was found wanting by the NGT will be repeated in a different forum, but one in which a favorable result for Adani is anticipated. This new process was set in train after Mahagenco, the public-sector enterprise that owns Gare Pelma II, sought remedy from the Modi government.

Subsequently, the Expert Appraisal Committee (EAC), a body appointed by the Union Ministry of Environment of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (‘the ministry’), has undertaken a review of the project’s rejected environmental approval.

After the NGT overturned the mine’s environmental approval, Mahagenco appealed the decision in India’s apex court, the Supreme Court, but withdrew the case in March 2024, saying it would seek ‘other remedies’. After Mahagenco took the matter to the Modi government, the EAC began a fresh evaluation of the flawed public-consultation process and formed a sub-committee to conduct a visit to the site.

‘Why is the EAC re-evaluating what the Green Tribunal has already adjudicated?’ asked Rinchin, who was amongst the four petitioners to the NGT.

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Adani’s coal mine near the village of Talabira has displaced thousands of people. Most have chosen not to live in the soulless re-settlement colony, which is devoid of greenery and basic amenities. People in nearby villages have watched this with dismay because their houses and farms will be the next to get swallowed up by the expanding mine. Ayaskant Das is one of the few journalists to have visited Talabira to investigate the desperate situation of people in the front line of Adani’s coal-mining juggernaut. Here is his exclusive report.

Basic facts and figures

• Name of project: Talabira II & III Opencast Coal Mining Project
• Location: Sambalpur and Jharsuguda, Odisha, India
• Name of owner: NLC India Limited (a public-sector enterprise)
• Mine Developer & Operator: Talabira (Odisha) Mining Private Limited (an Adani Group subsidiary)
• Coal reserves: 589.21 million tons
• Peak output: 23 million tons per annum
• Villages, population affected: 5 villages (Rampur, Malda, Patrapali, Talabira, Khinda); 2973 families
• Cost: Rs 2401 crore (US $288 million)
• Current status: Operational and expanding as of December 2019

As the sun blazes mercilessly from a cloudless sky on an April morning, Talabira’s residents wake up to another hot day. Talabira is a village in the eastern Indian state of Odisha. The village landscape, once verdant but now pock-marked by open-cast coal mining, is dominated by the presence of the multibillion-dollar Adani conglomerate.

Forewarned by my sources about the heat wave, we arrive at Talabira around 8 o’clock in the morning. As we meander through dense Sal forests towards the village along a winding road, signs of life and activity begin to emerge. Along the roadside, we encounter men laboriously pushing bicycles burdened with hefty blocks of coal. These pilfered loads will be sold to small roadside eateries, which serve as pit stops for truck drivers. The sight vividly portrays the relentless struggle for survival here, where individuals strive to piece together a livelihood from whatever they can find.

In the bustling marketplace of Khinda, a village surrounded by the debris left by coal mining, a semblance of daily life persists. Amidst the chaos, vegetable vendors meticulously arrange their produce on tarpaulins spread out by the road, ready to engage in the day’s commerce. Numerous mahua trees, the flower of which is used to brew a potent local brew, stand out in the stark landscape. The heady aroma of the mahua flowers, which used to pervade the still summer air of Talabira until around two years ago, is now conspicuous by its absence. The trees have stopped flowering, one of the many adverse impacts of the Adani Group’s Talabira II & III coal-mine. (AdaniWatch has previously reported on Adani’s plans for Talabira II and III).

A central-government public-sector undertaking in India, NLC India Limited, which owns Talabira II & III, has outsourced the mining operations to an Adani-owned subsidiary company, Talabira (Odisha) Mining Private Limited. The block covers 1167 hectares of the coalfields of the Ib valley, in the Sambalpur and Jharsuguda districts of Odisha. It contains 589 million tons of underground coal reserves. The mine became operational in December 2019, with the first coal extracted in April 2020, but is yet to occupy its full planned extent. The Adani Group also owns the adjoining Talabira I coal block, whose mine is disused on the outskirts of Khinda.

After an arduous hour-long journey through rough terrain on a newly constructed road paved with stone chips within the mining lease, we arrive at Malda, a village perched above its surroundings. Malda faces obliteration to make way for the new coal mine. It is in Jharsuguda district. It is among many settlements awaiting demolition. Mining elsewhere is already at full throttle. The project has wiped out inter-district boundaries. We are oblivious to having crossed into Jharsuguda from Sambalpur.

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Two distinguished observers have expressed concern about the manner in which an Adani coal project in eastern India is being progressed. Both were responding to AdaniWatch’s exclusive story about the Bijahan coal project published last week. A former senior public servant has questioned the approval processes for the proposed coal mine, saying that it appears that the legal rights of the area’s indigenous inhabitants have not been adequately addressed. And a former coal-company director has argued that the Bijahan coal project could cast a bad light on India’s coal-mining sector more generally, with potential negative impacts on the country’s energy security.

Basic facts and figures

• Name of project: Bijahan coal-mining project
• Location: Hemgir, Sundargarh
• Name of owner: Mahanadi Mines & Minerals Private Limited (an Adani Group subsidiary)
• Coal reserves: 327 million tons
• Peak output: 5.26 million tons per annum
• Villages, population affected: 4 villages affected (detailed R&R study not yet conducted)
• Cost: Rs 2600 crore (US $312 million)
• Current status: Awaiting land acquisition, environmental clearance process underway.

A news report on an Adani coal project in the eastern Indian state of Odisha published by AdaniWatch has generated a response from a coal-industry expert and a former high-level public servant. These influential observers have voiced robust concern about the future of the tribal people in whose ancestral forests the project is planned to occur.

The story described the drastic impacts of the Bijahan coal-mining project on tribal people who live in this forested precinct. Forests will be destroyed, villages obliterated and traditional livelihoods ruined. The people have seen what has happened with other coal projects in the district and know that compensation arrangements for them will be inadequate. They know that their lives will be turned upside down.

At least two distinguished observers have expressed their concerns about the way the project has been treated, given that the area concerned is inhabited by people whose land rights are explicitly recognised in Indian law and the constitution.

One former bureaucrat, EAS Sarma, with a distinguished career spanning several decades in governance and policy formulation, has written to the Modi government raising serious concerns about the project’s impact on local tribal communities. In the letter, dated 24 May 2024 and emailed to the Union Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Sarma addressed an alleged lack of consultation with the ministry before the coal block was allotted the Adani Group subsidiary.

Sarma pointed out that the region earmarked for the project falls within an area notified under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India, owing to its tribal population, therefore necessitating meticulous consideration of the interests of local communities before projects are approved.

‘It appears from news reports that the local Adivasis (tribal communities) feel disturbed as their fears and concerns have not been taken into account and their view on mining not genuinely considered before the Centre (government) and Odisha government unilaterally decided to start coal mining that is going to disrupt their lives,’ Sarma wrote.

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In March 2024, it was announced that a colossal coal block in central India was awarded to an Adani company. An earlier round of auctions for Mara II Mahan had attracted only one bidder, the Adani company, so no allocation was made. Concerns were then expressed that the Modi government might allocate the block to an Adani company in a second round even if no other bidders emerged. In the second round of the auction, the other bidder was a company mostly associated with mining iron ore and which is closely connected to a minister in the Indian government. Adani won the bidding.

At a glance:

Name of the coal block: Mara II Mahan

Reserves: 955.96 million tons

Coalfield: Singrauli coalfields

Location: Singrauli district, Madhya Pradesh

Type of mining: Underground

Owner: Mahan Energen Limited, an Adani Group subsidiary

Nearby coal-power plant: Adani’s Mahan / Bandhaura plant

Status: Approval process not begun

In the most recent round of auctions of coal blocks in India, the Adani Group won the biggest block by offering the government the lowest share of revenue of any of the successful bidders in the round.  It is to be expected that the higher the share of revenue proposed to go to the government, the more likely the bid is to succeed. The Adani Group outbid the only other competitor, a company linked to India’s Railway Minister, Ashwini Kumar Vaishnaw, to win the Mara II Mahan block. Vaishnaw’s background as a bureaucrat, corporate executive and, since 2019, a politician with the ruling BJP, has been described in a NewsClick story.

Mara II Mahan is important to the Adani Group because of its mammoth reserves (it contains nearly a billion tons of coal) and its proximity to other Adani-controlled coal blocks such as Dhirauli, Gondbahera Ujheni East and Gondbahera Ujheni. These will all serve as captive mines for the Mahan coal-power plant owned by the Adani Group’s subsidiary Mahan Energen Limited.

(Note that the Mahan power plant has previously been referred to by AdaniWatch as the Bandhaura power plant, after the village closest to it. It is referred to on Adani Power’s website as the Singrauli power plant, after the Singrauli coalfields. However, a recent presentation to investors by Adani refers to the plant and its proposed expansions under the name ‘Mahan’. For consistency, the power plant is referred to in this story as the Mahan plant.)

In an earlier auction of coal blocks, apprehensions had been brewing over whether Mara II Mahan would go to the Adani Group even if Adani was the only bidder. In articles published by the Reporters’ Collective and AdaniWatch last year, it was highlighted how an expert panel comprising top bureaucrats of the Modi government was allocating coal blocks that had failed to receive more than one bid each after two rounds of bidding. The articles explained how 11 coal deposits had been allocated to single bidders with the approval of an expert panel called the Empowered Committee of Secretaries (ECoS). These 11 mines included Gondbahera Ujheni East, which was allocated by the ECoS to its only bidder, an Adani Group subsidiary called MP Natural Resources Private Limited.

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An Adani company has received a setback from a state court in India regarding development of a huge coal mine. The High Court of Odisha has sent the Adani company and the state government back to the drawing board regarding mandatory consultations with tribal villagers to be ousted from their lands by the Bijahan mine. Village meetings, a mandatory part of the approval process, had been rushed through in a single day by local authorities, allegedly contravening legal requirements. The court’s order is a brief reprieve for people whose land, homes and livelihoods are threatened.

Basic facts and figures:

• Name of project: Bijahan coal mining project
• Location: Sundargarh, state of Odisha, India
• Name of Adani subsidiary: Mahanadi Mines & Minerals Private Limited
• Coal reserves: 327 million tons
• Peak output: 5.26 million tons per annum
• People affected: 4 villages affected (detailed study not yet conducted)
• Cost: Rs 2600 crore (US $313 million)
• Current status: Awaiting approval

The government of the eastern Indian state of Odisha allegedly rushed through public consultations with tribal communities to fast-track a proposed new coal mine belonging to the Adani Group, according to a court petition. Consultative meetings with project-affected communities in tribal-dominated villages, which should have been conducted only after a notice period of 15 days, were allegedly held at just a day’s notice!

The high court of Odisha has ordered the state government, headed by chief minister Naveen Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) regional political party, to address the complaints of communities that allege that public consultations were not conducted as per law. The government has been directed by the court to resolve the grievances within a period of three months.

The complaints pertain to the Bijahan coal mine which is proposed by Adani Group in Odisha’s Sundargarh, a district which is administered and controlled by the government through special provisions owing to the preponderance of tribal people within it. An Adani Group subsidiary, Mahanadi Mines & Minerals Private Limited, which owns the Bijahan block, has proposed a 5.26 million tons per annum (MTPA) mining project at a huge cost of over Rs 2600 crore (US $313 million). The block, a part of the IB coalfields of east-central India, contains over 327 million tons of reserves.

A vast tract of forest upon which the tribal communities are dependent for water resources, small-scale forest products and livelihoods will be cleared for the project. Though the Odisha government claims that public consultations were held through Gram Sabhas (councils comprising the adult population of a village), many project-affected people do not seem to know when the meetings were conducted.

‘We are undecided as to whether we would part with our homesteads, agricultural land and forests for the mining project,’ said Rajendra Naik of Sundargarh’s Hemgir tehsil (an administrative unit) where the project is proposed.

‘The state government has not yet convened Gram Sabha meetings to obtain the consent of local population in the project-affected villages.’

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The Adani Group’s massive Dhirauli coal-mining project in central India has received most of the government approvals necessary for the mine to proceed. However, a government expert body has raised concerns over the mine’s impact on forests and wildlife. The forest earmarked for clearing is equivalent to over 2600 football fields and is part of an elephant corridor near a wildlife sanctuary. Thousands of forest-dependent indigenous subsistence farmers rely on these forests for water and small-scale forest products.

Basic facts and figures

Coal block: Dhirauli

Owner: Stratatech Mineral Resources Private Limited (Adani Group subsidiary)

Coalfield: Singrauli, Madhya Pradesh

Coal reserves: 586.39 million tons

Total geological area: 2672 hectares

Forest area: 1398 hectares

Proposed capacity of mine: 6.5 million tons per annum

Project cost: Rs 2800 crore (US $340 million)

The Dhirauli coal block in the Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh belongs to an Adani Group subsidiary company. For the mine to proceed, the company requires government approvals covering a range of topics that include mining, the environment, clearing of forest and the diversion of a major stream. Despite serious concerns expressed by various government bodies, the Dhirauli coal project is moving towards full approval.

In May 2023, the Modi government recommended environmental approval for the proposed mine, leaving the project still requiring approval for its impact on forests.

Status of approvals required:

• Mining plan (Ministry of Coal, central government) – granted.
• Environment approval (Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, central government) – granted.
• Clearing of forest – approved by the Madhya Pradesh state government; awaiting approval by the central government, which has raised queries.

Forests approval and impacts on forest-dependent communities

When the Modi government granted approval for the Dhirauli coal project, a separate application by the Adani company to clear 1436.19 hectares of forest land for the mine was pending with the Madhya Pradesh government. Government records show that the project proponent was unable to identify an equivalent parcel of forest land for compensatory afforestation. The state government refused to grant clearance for the proposed loss of forest as the proponent had identified only 217.469 hectares of non-forest land – more than 700 kms away in the Rajgarh district of Madhya Pradesh – for compensatory afforestation. The Adani Group then submitted a fresh proposal in June 2023 seeking approval for clearing 1397.54 hectares of forest land.

A site inspection report by the forest department of Madhya Pradesh is dated 21 November 2023. It was finalised four days after the legislative assembly polls of Madhya Pradesh. A relatively new face in Madhya Pradesh politics, Mohan Yadav, was named as the new chief minister of the state after the BJP recorded a comfortable win over the Congress in results that were declared on 3 December. Yadav had started out in politics as a member of the BJP’s student wing, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, before joining mainstream politics. The BJP’s choice of him as chief minister in place of his predecessor, a far more experienced politician, raised many eyebrows. Congress supporters dubbed Yadav a rubber stamp of the BJP government at the centre.

There was no looking back for Adani’s Dhirauli mine after the new government was sworn in. The Madhya Pradesh government approved the recommendations of the forest department and sent the mine application to the Modi government for approval. Thereafter, the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change, in a letter dated 2 February 2024, pointed to various ‘shortcomings’ regarding the company’s proposed means of addressing the impact of the proposed mine on forests and ecology. On 11 March 2024, the project proponent responded to the Madhya Pradesh forest department on the issues pertaining to the proximity of Dhirauli to the wildlife sanctuary and its location within an elephant corridor.

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In January 2024, India’s top environmental court overturned approval for the Gare Pelma II coal mine. Here, Ayaskant Das describes why the court arrived at this judgment, citing failed public consultation, health risks and cumulative environmental impacts. The National Green Tribunal says that government officials conducting a public hearing about the project’s impacts ‘colluded’ with officials of the proponent to exclude people opposing the project, while admitting a select group of supporters. The Tribunal said that the affected people were deprived of a ‘fair, impartial, unbiased and valid public hearing’. An Adani Group company is the developer and would-be operator of the mine.

Key details of the project:

• Name: Gare Pelma II
• Owned by: Mahagenco
• Adani subsidiary (mine developer and operator): Gare Pelma II Collieries Private Limited 
• Location: Raigarh, Chhattisgarh, India
• Coal reserves: 29 million tons
• Planned output per annum: 23.6 million tonnes per annum
• Cost: US $902 million
• Current status: Environmental approval overturned
• Area of impact: 14 villages, farmland, forest, water resources and up to 2245 families

In a major setback for the Adani Group, the environmental approval for a huge coal mine that it proposes to operate in central India has been nullified by the country’s environmental court, the National Green Tribunal (‘the Tribunal’). Approval for the US $902-million Gare Pelma II project had been granted by the Modi government despite insufficient public consultation and without a proper analysis of its wider impact on the physical health of local communities.

The Tribunal’s judgment has been challenged by the project proponent in India’s apex court, the Supreme Court.

The coal block, with total coal reserves of 1050.29 million tons (MT) is in Raigarh district, in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, an area largely populated by tribal communities. Local people interviewed by this correspondent during a visit to the area in November 2023 expressed extreme resentment over the manner in which Chhattisgarh’s erstwhile Congress government had rushed through the project’s public hearing.

An Adani Group subsidiary, Gare Pelma II Collieries Private Limited, is the project’s MDO (mine developer and operator), which is a system of contractual mining pioneered by the business conglomerate. The coal block belongs to Mahagenco, a public-sector power company belonging to the government of the western Indian state of Maharashtra. In accordance with the judgment issued by a Tribunal bench comprising judicial member Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Afroz Ahmad, the project proponent will now have to seek a new environmental approval after conducting a fresh public hearing.

‘… we find that in the present case, public hearing has not been conducted in accordance with law, satisfying the words and spirit of the requirement of public consultation and proceedings are such so as to deprive the affected people fair, impartial, unbiased and valid public hearing/public consultation,’ said the Tribunal in a 237-page judgment dated 15 January 2024.

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Despite a public outcry against the Gondkhairi coal mine proposed by the Adani Group in central India, the Modi government has recommended environmental approval for the project. Local communities anticipate water shortages resulting from the underground mine and fear adverse impacts on farming. Protesting farmers disrupted a public hearing into the project in July last year, forcing government authorities to terminate the meeting halfway through. The region in which the mining lease occurs is already experiencing a decline in water resources.

Key details:

• Adani subsidiary: Adani Power Maharashtra Limited
• Location: Gondkhairi, Nagpur, Maharashtra
• Coal reserves: 98.717 million tons
• Planned output per annum: 3 million tons per annum (peak output)
• Cost: Rs 1303 crores (US $156 million)
• Current status: Under development

The 3-million-ton-per-annum (MTPA) Gondkhairi coal project is proposed in Vidarbha, a drought-prone region in the state of Maharashtra, which is known for agricultural distress and a disproportionate number of suicides by farmers. According to data presented by Maharashtra government in the legislative assembly (lower house of elected representatives in the state) 2366 farmers committed suicide across the state in the first ten months (January-October) of the year 2023. The highest number of suicides were reported from the Vidarbha region with 257 farmers killing themselves in the Nagpur administrative division alone, within which the proposed coal project is located.

The mining lease of the Adani Group covers 862 hectares in an area where local communities are mostly dependent on agriculture. Of this lease area, 13.89 hectares are covered by water bodies such as lakes and reservoirs, of which there are at least eight in and around the mining lease. These meet many of the water needs of the farm-dependent population.

The project proponent, the Adani Group subsidiary Adani Power Maharashtra Limited, has promised that, for the purposes of water conservation, it will not carry out underground mining directly beneath these bodies of water and has proposed a plan for rejuvenating them. However, local communities believe the network of natural underground aquifers will be degraded by mining, leading to further drying of the local environment and a reduction in agricultural productivity.

‘Most agricultural activities in the region are dependent on groundwater, which is accessed through bore wells’, Abhay Raut, an office-bearer of a local agricultural marketing committee, told this correspondent. ‘Existing wells have dried up in several villages, forcing local communities to depend entirely on groundwater even for their drinking water.

‘Excessive dependence on groundwater has also resulted in quick drying up of borewells. In many villages, Gram Panchayats (village-level self-governing councils) are forced to undertake new borewell projects every year with funds from the government to meet water requirements. This situation will be aggravated if the mining activities degrade underground water resources.’

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