Tree felling in Hasdeo forest area begins amidst opposition from tribal villagers
Police arrest several villagers on Tuesday early hour to start work of felling trees in 45 hectares of land.
Raipur:
Decade long protest against tree felling in Hasdeo forest area by the tribal villagers could not save the trees as the district administration and forest department with the help of police force started the tree felling work in the dense forest of 45 hectares from Basen to Bambaru on Tuesday. The protesting villagers and activists were earlier arrested in the early hours on Tuesday.
The tree felling is being done for the second phase of Parsa East Kete Basan mine. It is alleged that the expansion of the mine will destroy Ghatbarra village in Surguja district. At the same time, forest of 1,138 hectares is also to be destroyed.
After the Parsa mine, the expansion was the most opposed in this area. According to villagers, the police arrested more than 20 tribal villagers who were agitating against the mine even before dawn on Tuesday. However, police have admitted to arresting 12 people but not for opposing tree felling but in old cases.
Those who have been taken into the custody by the police include Umeshwar Singh Armo, Sarpanch of Paturiadand, Jaynandan Singh Porte, Sarpanch of Ghatbarra, Sarpanch of Basen Shripal Singh and his wife, Jagarnath Bada of Puta, Ram Singh Markam, Thakur Ram Kusro of Salhi, Anand Kumar Kusro, Shyam Lal of Basen and his wife and wife of Shiv Prasad.
A senior official of Surguja district administration said that tree felling was done amid heavy deployment of police force. Villagers are being asked to cooperate instead of creating hurdle.
The administration officials said that whenever there is government work, people bring out arrows and bows. Some people come under the influence of liquor to resist. To keep such elements away, some people have been arrested, said the officials.
On the question of the destruction of Ghatbarra village in the expansion of the mine, an official said, “We are not even touching the village. Right now trees of 45 hectares of forest are being cut. After that another forest of 1100 hectares will be cut. The number of the village has to come after three years. Then it will be seen whether they are ready to be displaced by taking compensation or not. It is not correct to protest now.”
The Parsa East Kete Basan coal mine was allotted to Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam in 2012. Mining has been going on in it since 2013. Its second phase was proposed in 2019. It is proposed to displace the entire Ghatbarra village with a population of about 4,000, including acquisition of 348 hectares of revenue land, 1138 hectares of forest land for the project. The district administration has rejected the gram sabha resolution opposing tree felling.
