India just cleared the felling of 3,31,818 trees for a single coal mine in Odisha.
That's not a typo.
That's one project.
In one district.
And it's only the beginning.
The Ministry of Environment has given in-principle approval to Rungta Sons' Alakananda Coal Mine in Angul's Chhendipada area.
754 hectares of forest — gone.
👉 436 hectares of reserved forest
👉 316 hectares of revenue forest
👉 The rest, deemed forest
The company has "undertaken" to relocate 50% of the trees and plant more elsewhere.
The other half? Just felled.
Angul isn't just any district.
It sits on 48% of Odisha's total coal reserve.
Which means this isn't the last mine here.
It's one of 66 coal blocks identified in the district.
If all of them go ahead, nearly 350 villages across 50+ panchayats could be affected.
And this land isn't empty.
It's elephant country.
In just the last 8 years, roughly 200 elephants have died in human-elephant conflict linked to forest loss and mining in this belt.
Humans too.
This isn't the first time this exact area has been in the spotlight either.
Just last year, the National Green Tribunal issued notices over another mine nearby — felling over 1 lakh trees in the same tehsil.
Trees planted 300 km away don't replace an elephant corridor.
Compensation on paper isn't compensation in the forest.
Coal keeps the lights on.
But somewhere in Angul, that trade-off is now being counted in lakhs of trees — and hundreds of elephants.
That's all for now!
