From Forest to Pit: A Decade of Mining in Hasdeo Arand

Article released on September 27, 2025

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are my own and do not represent those of any affiliated organizations or government bodies. The area measurements are an estimate from satellite imagery and, hence, not precise values.

In the heart of northern Chhattisgarh lies Hasdeo Arand, one of India’s last great stretches of unbroken forest. Locals call it the ‘lungs of Chhattisgarh’, and it’s not hard to see why - the canopy stretches for miles, home to elephants, leopards, sloth bears, and countless other species. Rivers and streams crisscross the landscape, sustaining both wildlife and hundreds of indigenous villages that have lived here for generations (Cassey, 2020; Naidu, 2024). 

But beneath this green expanse lies another treasure: an estimated 5 billion tonnes of coal (Paliwal, 2022). For decades, the presence of this resource set up a collision course between energy needs and ecological survival. At one point, Hasdeo was classified as a ‘no-go’ zone for mining because of its dense tree cover and biodiversity (Sra, 2020). That protection, however, did not last.

To geologists and policymakers, Hasdeo is not only a forest but also a coalfield. The Geological Survey of India designated a Hasdeo Arand Coalfield (HAC), covering nearly 1,875 square kilometres of coal-bearing geology (Ravi, 2022). For administrative purposes, this coalfield was carved into 23 individual coal blocks, each of which could be allocated to companies or state utilities for mining (Ravi, 2022). Together, these blocks cover about 472 square kilometres, cutting into one of central India’s most ecologically significant zones.

Among these 23 blocks, one in particular would become the first to test Hasdeo’s protections, the Parsa East and Kente Basan (PEKB) coal block. It was here that mining began, setting in motion the transformation of Hasdeo from an intact forest to a contested mining landscape.

The first step toward mining in Hasdeo Arand came in 2007, when the Parsa East and Kente Basan (PEKB) coal block was allotted to the Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RRVUNL), a state-run power utility in Rajasthan. The block held an estimated 450 million tonnes of coal and was seen as a vital fuel source for Rajasthan’s power stations (Paliwal, 2022).

From the outset, PEKB was controversial. In 2010, India’s Forest Advisory Committee recommended that mining not be allowed in Hasdeo Arand, calling it a ‘no-go’ zone because of the forest’s dense canopy and ecological importance (Sra, 2020). Yet in March 2012, the central government granted final (Stage II) clearance for PEKB (Paliwal, 2022). The decision went against the advice of the ministry’s own experts and inspection reports, which had also flagged that local indigenous communities had not given free and informed consent (Cassey, 2020; Sra, 2020). Concerns were set aside in the name of meeting energy demands.

Meanwhile, Rajasthan’s power utility had brought in a private partner to actually develop and operate the mine. In 2007, it formed a joint venture with the Adani Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, which took a majority stake (74%) in a new company called Parsa Kente Collieries Ltd (Paliwal, 2022). By 2013, Adani was on the ground as the official Mine Developer and Operator (MDO), responsible for acquiring land, resettling villages, and extracting coal (Paliwal, 2022). 

The first visible transformation appeared that year. In early 2013, tree-felling began, and open-pit mining machinery rolled in near the villages of Parsa and Salhi. By December 2013, satellite images clearly show forest clearing underway, with settlements inside the block boundaries gradually erased and residents displaced. 

Over a decade of satellite imagery reveals how the PEKB coal block has reshaped Hasdeo Arand. What began as a small pit in 2013 has grown into a vast scar on the landscape by 2025.

• Total mine footprint: expanded from 218 hectares (2013) to 1,389 hectares (2025), a six-fold increase.

• Forest removed: about 1,013 hectares of forest have been cleared, meaning nearly three-quarters (73%) of the mine’s area once held dense forest cover.

• Growth phases: the expansion has not been uniform. Instead, it unfolded in four distinct phases:

  • Phase I (2013-2016): initial growth, steady but moderate.

  • Phase II (2016-2019): rapid expansion, the steepest surge in deforestation.

  • Slowdown (2020-2022): growth nearly stalled, coinciding with protests and a state resolution against mining.

  • Phase III (2023-205): a fresh surge as new political support accelerated tree felling.

• Settlements erased: several small hamlets that existed in 2010 within the PEKB block no longer appear on satellite images in 2025, confirming reports of entire villages being displaced.

Together, these results show a clear pattern: mining has advanced in waves, driven by policy decisions and contested on the ground by indigenous communities. Let’s look at each phase a bit more closely.

Below is a before-and-after comparison between 2016 (left image) and 2025 (right image) for you to get a quick visualisation of the landscape. Slide it to see the changes by yourself.

Between 2013 and 2016, the PEKB mine expanded steadily but moderately. The mine footprint grew from 218 hectares in 2013 to 503 hectares by late 2016, while forest loss climbed to 213 hectares. In this early stage, mining cleared land equivalent to more than 300 football fields, setting the stage for much larger expansion to come.

Satellite imagery shows the transition clearly. In 2011, the block was covered almost entirely by continuous forest canopy, dotted with small hamlets and farmlands/shrubs/grasslands. By December 2013, the first pits were visible. By 2016, the footprint had more than doubled, consuming forest and farmlands/shrubs/grasslands inside the block.

Based on the 2001 census village boundaries, most of the settlements in the PEKB block fall within the boundary of Parsa village. Some media reports describe this phase in terms of erasure of ‘Kete village’ (which is actually an adjacent village), which may reflect updated administrative boundaries or local mining conventions. Regardless of the labels, the evidence is consistent: settlements that once stood inside the PEKB block are slowly being consumed by the mining pits.

If the first years marked a cautious start, the period between 2016 and 2019 brought the most dramatic changes in Hasdeo Arand. The mine footprint nearly doubled in this phase, growing from 503 hectares in 2016 to 955 hectares by 2019. This was the period of largest year-on-year increases: +136 ha in 2017, +191 ha in 2018, and +125 ha in 2019.

Forest loss rose in parallel, crossing the 500-hectare mark by 2019, more than half of the total forest (till June 2025) cleared so far. Much of this loss was concentrated in contiguous patches, fragmenting what was once a dense canopy. 

Satellite images from these years show how the pit expanded aggressively outward, consuming large tracts of the block and some settlements and moving closer to the boundaries of nearby villages. What had started as a single open pit now began to resemble a sprawling mining zone. It is during the 2017/2018 period a bunch of hamlets that are in the centre of PEKB block were completed consumed by the mining pits. 

Reports from the time reinforce this picture. By 2017, PEKB was operating at a capacity of 10-15 million tonnes of coal per year (Naidu, 2024). Local communities described this period as the peak of tree felling, with several protests held against the rapid clearances. Activists also highlighted the cancellation of community forest rights in villages like Ghatbarra as a turning point that deepened tensions between residents and mining authorities (Derhgawen and Mohan, 2024; Paliwal, 2022; Ravi, 2022).

By the close of 2019, Phase II had transformed PEKB from a modest initial pit into a major industrial site. The rapid pace of clearing in these years accounts for almost half of the mine’s total expansion to date (June 2025).

After the surge of expansion during 2016-2019, the period from 2020 to 2022 marked a noticeable slowdown in the growth of PEKB. The mine footprint grew from 955 hectares in 2019 to 1,132 hectares in 2022, a modest increase compared to previous years. Annual increments were smaller: +83 ha in 2020, +92 ha in 2021, and almost no change in 2022.

Forest loss followed the same pattern. While cumulative loss reached over 630 hectares by 2022, year-on-year clearing was minimal. In 2020, just 8 hectares were lost, and in 2022, only a minor change was registered.

The imagery from this period shows a pit still active but no longer expanding as aggressively into the surrounding forest. This relative pause coincides with a turbulent political and legal backdrop. In 2019, India’s National Green Tribunal heard challenges related to Hasdeo’s clearances, and local opposition gained visibility (Law, 2023; Naidu, 2024; Ravi, 2022). In July 2022, the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly passed a rare unanimous resolution against further mining in Hasdeo, reflecting the growing protests by Adivasi communities (Naidu, 2024).

For residents and activists, this phase was seen as a fragile victory, evidence that sustained protests could at least slow, if not stop, the destruction. Yet, as subsequent years would show, the pause was temporary.

The period from 2023 onward has seen mining in Hasdeo Arand accelerate once again. After years of relative slowdown, the PEKB footprint surged from 1,132 hectares in 2022 to 1,389 hectares by mid-2025. This marks one of the sharpest expansions since the project began, with +84 ha added in 2024 and +128 ha in just the first half of 2025.

Forest loss mirrored the surge. In 2024 alone, 171 hectares of forest were cleared, followed by another 155 hectares in 2025, pushing cumulative loss past the 1,000-hectare mark. By mid-2025, roughly three-quarters of the total mine footprint (73%) was carved directly from forests.

Satellite imagery and maps from this period reveal the scale of change: fresh clearances advancing into Phase II of PEKB and toward the neighbouring villages of Kete and Ghatbarra. Several small settlement patches digitised from 2010 basemaps are now erased (as mentioned before during the 2017/2018 phase), and the mine edge is visibly encroaching toward the boundaries of settlements in Ghatbarra village.

News reports from late 2023 and 2024 confirm the on-ground picture. Despite earlier resolutions against mining, the change of state government in 2023 reopened the door for expansion. By October 2024, local media reported that 5,800 trees were cut in just two days to make way for the expansion, while PEKB Phase II resumed tree-felling after a year-long pause. Activists and community groups revived protests, leading to fresh confrontations with police in late 2024 (Das, 2024; Derhgawen and Mohan, 2024; Naidu, 2024).

Together, the data and reports highlight a critical turning point: what had been framed as a temporary halt has given way to a renewed push for coal, with heavy costs for Hasdeo’s forests, its habitat and its people.

For the forest itself, the cost is immense. Hasdeo is part of central India’s vital wildlife corridor, home to elephants, leopards, and sloth bears (Naidu, 2024). Clearing large tracts of canopy breaks these habitats into fragments, making wildlife movement harder and increasing conflict with nearby villages (Sharma, 2024). Forests that once moderated local climate and water cycles are now being replaced by bare earth, heat, and dust.

For local communities, the mine has meant displacement and uncertainty. Several settlements that appeared in 2010 imagery no longer exist today. Families have been relocated to resettlement colonies, often losing access to their ancestral land and forest-based livelihoods. Protests have risen in response, with indigenous groups warning that new clearances will uproot more villages and deepen their struggles (Cassey, 2020; Law, 2023; Ravi, 2022).

Politically, Hasdeo’s future remains contested. In 2010, it was called a ‘no-go’ forest; in 2022, the Chhattisgarh Assembly passed a resolution against mining. Yet by 2023, new state leadership signalled support for expansion, and mass tree-felling resumed. The satellites make clear what these policy shifts mean on the ground: each approval translates to new scars on the forest.

Hasdeo now stands at a crossroads. Whether the remaining blocks are mined or spared will determine if this forest continues as a living ecosystem and home for its people, or if it becomes another entry in the ledger of coal-driven loss.

The numbers and figures in this article are based on my own analysis of publicly available satellite imagery, including high-resolution commercial data (Planet Scope (Planet Team, 2025)), open datasets such as Landsat and archival imagery from Google Earth Pro. All boundaries were manually digitised upon visual inspection, year by year, in a GIS environment to calculate the growth of the mapping footprint and the extent of forest cleared. Settlement areas visible in older imagery (Google Earth Pro) were also mapped to track which hamlets have since disappeared inside the active mining zone.

These calculations are research estimates, meant to illustrate the scale and pace of change in Hasdeo Arand. They are not official government statistics, and small differences are possible compared to administrative records. The results should therefore be read as a spatial narrative, showing how the forest has been transformed over time rather than as precise regulatory measurements.

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