For over 11 years, Hasdeo Arand, central India’s largest unfragmented forest and the last surviving pristine forest, has echoed with the cries of resistance and been stained with the blood of those who have dared to stand up for it. On the morning of October 17, 2024, the villagers of Salhi, Hariharpur, Ghatbarra, and Fatehpur found themselves in yet another violent confrontation with the Chhattisgarh Police. Villagers were pleading in desperation as ancient trees—revered as gods—were felled by Adani Enterprises to make way for coal mining in phase II of the operations there.

The latest skirmish is but another chapter in an ongoing tragedy, where development’s cost is measured not just in acres but in lives, livelihoods, and a way of life that is slipping through the cracks of India’s environmental and political conscience.

The video footage, shared by villagers, is disturbing: police in riot gear lathicharging protesters, chasing them through the fields and forests. Among the injured was Ram Lal Kariyam, a prominent activist with the Hasdeo Arand Bachao Andolan (Save Hasdeo Arand Movement), his head soaked in blood after a blow. Women, standing defiant, pushed back against police shields with their bare hands. But in the end, it was the bulldozers that won. Centuries-old trees, sacred to the tribal communities, were cut down.

Know More