In a renewed offensive, Congress leader Jairam Ramesh asserted on Wednesday that the approval process for the Adani Group’s Dhirauli coal mining project is riddled with “blatant irregularities.” He backed his claims by citing a 2023 Lok Sabha reply from the Coal Ministry, which indicated the project falls within an area protected by the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution.
Mr. Ramesh directly accused the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) of making a “false” claim in its earlier rebuttal, where it stated that the mining land was not located in a Fifth Schedule area. This statement from the MoEF&CC had previously affirmed, “Both Stage-I and Stage-II approvals have been duly granted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. Allegations with regard to violations of constitutional protections are factually incorrect and misleading.”
As of now, neither the Environment Ministry nor the Adani Group has issued a fresh response to Mr. Ramesh’s latest accusations.
Taking to social media, Mr. Ramesh reiterated his September 12 allegations concerning the Dhirauli project. He highlighted the MoEF&CC’s swift response at the time, which denied that the land fell under the Fifth Schedule and asserted that all legal procedures under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, had been completed.
However, Mr. Ramesh countered this by sharing a screenshot of the Coal Ministry’s Lok Sabha reply from August 9, 2023. This document, he argued, clearly and unequivocally stated that the Dhirauli coal mining project is indeed located in an area protected by the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, directly contradicting the Environment Ministry’s position.
Further addressing the second point of the rebuttal, Mr. Ramesh clarified that the Forest Rights Act, 2006, extends beyond individual forest rights to include crucial community forest resource rights (CFR) and habitat rights for Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs).
He emphasized that the Dhirauli coal mine requires the diversion of approximately 3,500 acres of forest land, impacting five villages directly and at least three adjacent villages that depend on these forests. For the project to proceed legally, all three categories of tribal rights across these eight villages must be settled first, a step Mr. Ramesh contends has not been properly undertaken.
The Congress leader highlighted that a District Collector’s certification from March 31, 2022, claimed the complete process for identification and settlement of rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, had been carried out, including safeguarding PVTG rights. Yet, according to information from the Madhya Pradesh government itself, no community or habitat rights have been recognized in the entire Singrauli district, where these eight villages are situated, up to the present day.
Last Friday, Mr. Ramesh accused the Adani Group of having already commenced tree felling on government and forest land in Dhirauli, Madhya Pradesh, in what he termed a “blatant violation” of the Forest Rights Act. He also alleged that the Modi government “imposed this allotment from above” in 2019 and is now fast-tracking its implementation in 2025 without the necessary legal clearances.
The Madhya Pradesh government had previously rejected these claims as baseless, asserting that all necessary approvals were obtained and that the MoEF&CC had granted Stage-II (final) approval for the Dhirauli project. The State government maintained that the project land does not fall under the PESA or Fifth Schedule areas, and a public hearing, along with Gram Sabha approval, was duly conducted. It also noted that compensation totaling ₹18 crore to 49 landowners is currently being processed.
Earlier this month, Adani Power confirmed it had received approval from the Ministry of Coal to begin mining operations at the Dhirauli mine in Madhya Pradesh’s Singrauli district.