Chhattisgarh Cops villagers injured in scuffle during protest against proposed Parsa coal mine

Ambikapur, Oct 17 (PTI) A scuffle broke out between police personnel and villagers on Thursday during a protest by the latter against tree felling for the proposed Parsa coal mine in Chhattisgarh's Surguja district.
While the police claimed that eight cops and two revenue personnel sustained injuries as villagers attacked them, activists alleged that police cane-charged the protesters.
Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra slammed the Chhattisgarh government over the alleged police action against the protesters. She hit out at the ruling BJP saying it has become the policy of the party to oppress the tribals across the country, whom she described as the owners of the forests.
Tree felling for Parsa coal mine, allotted to Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Limited (RRVUNL), in the biodiversity-rich Hasdeo Arand region of in Surguja division is scheduled to start from Friday near Ghatbarra village, for which around 400 police and revenue personnel were deployed on Thursday, the police said.
Police personnel have been deployed in the area to maintain law and order ahead of the tree felling exercise. Despite being pacified by the police and revenue officials, villagers reached the site with traditional weapons like axe, bow and arrow and sticks and launched an attack, Surguja Superintendent of Police Yogesh Patel told PTI.
"Eight police personnel, a deputy collector and a 'kotwar' (lower-rung revenue personnel) sustained injuries in the attack," he said.
A villager, identified as Ramlal Kadiam, also sustained injuries, but was not at the hands of the police as he bore injury marks that were done by a sharp-edged weapon and the police personnel did not carry any such weapon. He might have been hit by a weapon being carried by villagers during a scuffle, he said.
The situation is under control in the area, he added.
Videos of the protest site show a large number of villagers carrying sticks, axes, bows and arrows amid deployment of a large number of police personnel.
Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan (CBA), which has been at the forefront of the protest against allotment of coal mines in Hasdeo area, claimed that police lathi-charged the villagers, and condemned the alleged action.
"The CBA strongly condemns the lathi-charge and repressive action on unarmed villagers to forcefully open a new mine, Parsa coal block, in Hasdeo forest to supply coal to Rajasthan and expand Adani's business," CBA convener Alok Shukla said.
Several villagers have been injured in the lathi-charge, he claimed.
The RRVUNL has given Parsa mine's MDO (mine developer-cum-operator) to Adani group.
"The forest and environmental clearances for Parsa coal mine are based on fake gram sabha documents, and CBA demands immediate cancellation of all approval to this mine. The gram sabhas of Hariharpur, Salhi, Fatepur villages have never given consent to forest clearance for the Parsa project," he said.
In 2018, forest clearance was obtained by pressurising the then sarpanch and panchayat secretary and preparing fake gram sabha resolution documents. In 2021, more than 350 villagers from 30 villages reached Raipur after a 300 km-long foot march, where the then Governor had assured an investigation into the matter, he added.
The Chhattisgarh legislative assembly had unanimously passed a resolution in 2022 (during the Congress rule) that mining activities will not be carried out in Hasdeo area. This year, the Chhattisgarh State Schedule Tribes Commission instituted a probe into alleged fake gram sabha proposal for Parsa mine, he said.
The mining in the ecologically-sensitive Hasdeo Arand region would result in the destruction of 1,70,000 hectares of forest and trigger human-elephant conflict, he claimed.
"We demand to immediately put on hold the deforestation", he said.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra took to 'X' to slam the state government over the alleged police action against the protestors.
"It has become the policy of the BJP to oppress the tribals in the entire country. The tribals who have been the owners of the forests for centuries are being evicted so that Adani ji's mines can run. Have the areas of the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution been abolished in Chhattisgarh? Will the rights of the tribals on water, forest and land and the heritage of their ancestors be decided through fake processes?" she said.
"The (previous) Congress government (in Chhattisgarh) had unanimously passed a resolution in the Assembly that trees will not be cut in the Hasdeo Aranya area. The BJP had also supported the resolution, but today despite the opposition of the tribals, they are being asked to vacate the forest and on protesting, tribal brothers and sisters are being oppressed," she added.
Notably the previous Congress government had granted final approval for the non-forestry use of 841.548 hectares of forest land for the Parsa mine (Surguja and Surajpur districts) in March 2022.
However, in November 2022, the state government in a letter to the Director General of Forests, Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change requested to cancel the approval of non forestry use of 841.548 hectare of forest land for Parsa coal mine.
The CBA had then said the state government should cancel the final clearance given by it for the coal project.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)