Скачать или смотреть Voices of Hasdeo Arand: The Story of Displaced Villages Kete and Basan

This study examines one of India’s most significant environmental movements, led by the indigenous communities of the Hasdeo Arand forest in Chhattisgarh. Through a sociological and legal lens, it investigates the complexities surrounding an area designated under the Fifth Schedule of the Indian Constitution, yet allocated for coal mining to Rajasthan Rajya Vidyut Utpadan Nigam Ltd (RRVUNL), with operations subcontracted to Adani Enterprises Ltd. Since 2013, the villagers of Ghatbarra, Hariharpur, Salhi, and Fatehpur have actively resisted these developments, fighting for their identity, economic autonomy, legal rights, and communal way of life. This research forms part of a series of field-based essays produced by the Visual Storyboard team at the Centre for New Economics Studies (CNES), OP Jindal Global University, dedicated to amplifying the voices of tribal communities in Chhattisgarh. In the dense and vibrant Hasdeo Arand forest of Chhattisgarh, once home to towering sal trees, orchids, and endangered wildlife, the village of Kete thrived, nestled deep in the green heart of one of India’s most biodiverse regions. Today, however, Kete exists only as a memory—an early victim in the ongoing decimation of Hasdeo’s forests, cleared to make way for coal mining. It was here, in 2013, that the Parsa East Kete Basan (PEKB) coal block, granted to Adani Enterprises, began its operations, setting off a chain of events that would irreversibly alter the lives of Kete’s residents.

Camera Credit: Mohit Kumar