Can protect Hasdeo while still meeting coal demands: Forest rights activist

The biodiversity-rich Hasdeo Aranya forests in Chhattisgarh -- where hundreds of tribals are protesting against tree felling for coal mining -- can be protected while still meeting India's coal demands, forest rights activist Alok Shukla has asserted.

In an interview with PTI, Shukla, who received the Goldman Environmental Prize, also known as the 'Green Nobel', this year, said claims that coal mining brings development, and rehabilitation improves people's lives are "misleading".

He said when communities protest, it's often because corporations have broken their promises and taken away indigenous people's rights and livelihoods.

"This has created massive distrust. No community wants to give up its land to greedy corporations, and the government must understand this," Shukla, who has been leading the Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan, a community campaign to save the pristine Hasdeo forests since 2012, said.

According to central government data, India's coal demand is expected to reach .