Centre clears mining project in key Maharashtra forest reserve

The Centre has given clearance to a mining project in Maharashtra’s Chandrapur, which is a reserve forest area. The area also falls in a tiger corridor, connecting the Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve with the Indravati Tiger Reserve.

Known as ‘black gold city’, Chandrapur is famous for coal and mineral reserves and degraded forest landscapes, owing to mining projects that are driving tigers and wild to the human habitat.

The Maharashtra Government has sought Union Environment Ministry’s permission to divert 12.07 hectares of the reserve forest land for open cast mining. Open-cast mining is a surface mining method that extracts minerals or rocks from the earth by creating an open pit or excavation.

The total lease area for mining is 1,152.66 hectares, of which 1,140.59 hectares is non-forest area and remaining 12.07 hectares is forest Land. The state government has informed the ministry that coal would be extracted from the forest land. The ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee has given in principle approval to the project.

In its submission to the ministry, the Maharashtra Forest Department certified that the forest area, where the project will be implemented, does not fall within 10 km to any wildlife sanctuary, national park or tiger reserve.

However, the Wildlife Institute of India apprised the ministry that the project falls in tiger corridor joining the Tadoba Andheri Tiger Reserve and the Indravati Tiger Reserve. “A total of 12.07 hectares of forest land is a coal-bearing area, from which coal extraction would be done. It was further informed that the project area is not a part of any protected area; however, it is located within the tiger corridor joining the TATR and the Indravati Tiger Reserve as per telemetry data of the Wildlife Institute of India,” the minutes of the meeting of the Forest Advisory Committee stated.

While approving the project, the advisory committee said that the state government should inform the ministry about the exact number of trees involved in forest area and ensure that the minimum tree felling is done in a phased manner.

According to the Maharashtra Forest Department, 111 human deaths from tiger attacks were reported in 2022-2023 and 59 in 2023-2024.