Adani’s plans for huge new coal mines in India’s Hasdeo forests have created a political stoush involving three governments. One state government has asked the national government to revoke mining permits. Another wants the coal. And the national government says the decision to destroy the forests has already been made. In the midst of all this is Rahul Gandhi, one of India’s most prominent politicians.
Congress figurehead, Rahul Gandhi, has said tribal protests against Adani’s coal mines in the Hasdeo forests are ‘justified’. Results of his work behind the scenes on the ‘problem’ should be ‘visible in a couple of weeks.’
In a controversial decision that will benefit the Adani Group to the detriment of tribal forest-dwellers, leaders of the Indian states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh have sanctioned clearance of forests to expand an Adani coal mine. In an unpleasant twist, while Gautam Adani is perceived to be close to PM Narendra Modi of the BJP, this decision was made by leaders of the Indian National Congress, which opposes Modi’s party.
A recent protest against alleged encroachment on pasture by an Adani solar-power project in the western Indian state of Rajasthan was the latest in a series of conflicts spurred by an aggressive plan for huge arrays of solar panels in this arid zone. The sprawling industrial installations threaten ancestral grazing lands, oases and some of the last habitat of the Great Indian Bustard. Such conflicts could be avoided with proper regulation and community consultation.
On August 31, a Supreme Court Bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra approved the decision by electricity regulators to grant Adani Power “compensatory tariffs” amounting to Rs 8,000 crore for electricity generated at its power plant in Rajasthan. The verdict is the seventh judgment since 2019 in which benches headed by him have ruled in favour of Adani group companies.
With less than a month to go before his retirement from the Supreme Court, Justice Arun Mishra is expected to pronounce the judgement of a three-judge bench he heads in a case concerning a company in the Adani group. This will be the seventh case involving Adani group companies heard by benches led by Justice Mishra since 2019, with the previous six judgements having gone in favour of the group. If the decision on the seventh case also goes in the Adani group’s favour, it would leave public power distribution utilities and consumers in Rajasthan poorer by around Rs 5,000 crore.
