Authorities in Chhattisgarh’s Surguja district on Thursday began cutting trees for the Parsa East and Kanta Basan phase-2 extension coal mines in the Hasdeo Arand forest amid heavy police deployment.

The exercise started even as locals and activist groups continued to stage protests.

In July last year, the Chhattisgarh Assembly unanimously passed a resolution urging the Centre to cancel the allocation of all coal mining blocks in the Hasdeo forest, which is one of the last unfragmented forest landscapes in central India.

This came after protests broke out in the region in April as the Chhattisgarh government allotted the Parsa coal mine to the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited after receiving a green signal from the Centre. The coal mine was subsequently handed over to the Adani Group for operations.

Thereafter, the former Congress government in Chhattisgarh wrote to the Centre in November 2022, urging it to cancel the allocation of the coal blocks that lay in the forest. Earlier this year, the state also told the Supreme Court that it was against any fresh mining in Hasdeo Arand, according to the Hindustan Times.

After the Bharatiya Janata Party won the Chhattisgarh Assembly election earlier this year, Vishnu Deo Sai took oath as the chief minister on December 13.

Less than ten days later, the exercise to clear the land for mining in the forest began on Thursday, with a district official stating that “necessary clearances” have been received for the work, reported PTI.

Alok Shukla, an activist at the forefront of the anti-mining protests in the Hasdeo Arand, told Scroll that he, along with other Adivasi activists Ramlal Kariam, Jayandan Porte and Thakur Ram, were intercepted by some persons who were not in police uniform, while they were on their way to Hasdeo early on Thursday. They were taken to Bilaspur and released late at night.

The chief minister said that no arrests were made amid the tree cutting, although he received information about the protests by locals.

The Opposition Congress accused the Bharatiya Janata Party government of favouring industrialist Gautam Adani, chairperson of the Adani Group, according to PTI.

“Felling of trees has started and 30,000 trees have been chopped,” said Leader of Opposition Charan Das Mahant. “...Our [Congress] government had brought a resolution in the House to save Hasdeo. We want the government to stop Hasdeo from being destroyed. Do not hand over the poor’s land and jungle [to industrialists].”