New Delhi, Jul 25 (PTI) Around 95,000 trees have been felled for coal mining in the biodiversity-rich Hasdeo Aranya forest in Chhattisgarh and over 2.73 lakh more will be cut in the coming years, the government informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
Replying to a question by AAP MP Sandeep Kumar Pathak, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav said that according to the Chhattisgarh government, 94,460 trees have been felled in the Parsa East Kete Basen Mine (PEKB). A total of 53,40,586 trees have been planted to compensate for the loss and for "mine reclamation and translocation".
He said that 40,93,395 of the newly planted trees have survived.
The minister informed the Rajya Sabha that 2,73,757 more trees are required to be felled in Hasdeo Aranya in the coming years.
There are three adjacent coal blocks in the Hasdeo Aranya coalfield region in Chhattisgarh's Surguja district: Parsa, Parsa East Kente Basan (PEKB), and Kente Extension Coal Block (KECB). All three coal blocks have been allocated to the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd.
The forest is spread over 1,70,000 hectares and is much larger than the country's capital, Delhi. According to the Indian Bureau of Mines, coal reserves in the pristine forest amount to 5,179.35 million tonnes.
In January this year, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) took suo motu cognizance of protests against the tree cutting for Phase 2 of the PEKB coal mining project and sought a report from the state forest department.
The department, in its reply, said that the tree felling was being undertaken "in strict adherence to the approvals and permissions given by both central and state government authorities".
The state government informed the NGT that more than 98,000 trees had been cut for coal mining in the PEKB coal field since 2012.
The report said that the PEKB coal block was spread over 1,898 hectares of forest land and that Phase 1 mining in 762 hectares had been completed, while Phase 2 was underway in the remaining 1,136 hectares.
The forest department reported that a total of 81,866 trees were cut in the first phase of mining between 2012 and 2022. Around 17,460 trees had been felled in 113 hectares under Phase 2, which was being conducted in parts.
It informed the NGT that over 53 lakh saplings had been planted to compensate for the loss of trees.