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Informist, Thursday, May 21, 2026

 

--SC quashes plea against govt OK for forest diversion in favour of Adani co

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court Thursday rejected a petition challenging the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's order granting final approval for diversion of forest in favour of Stratatech Mineral Resources Pvt. Ltd., an Adani Group company, for a coal mining project in Madhya Pradesh's Singrauli forest area and an order of state government giving consent to the company on the same. The petitioner Ajay Dubey, an activist, sought that the area should be declared an eco-sensitive zone under the provisions of Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 as it was an elephant corridor.

 

The petitioner said it was a serious environmental issue and not an adversarial litigation. Someone needs to examine the validity of forest clearances, said Dubey, adding that the National Green Tribunal had termed the petition as time-barred, however, 600,000 trees which were standing for more than 500 years in the area have to be cut for this project, said Dubey.  

 

Last month, the National Green Tribunal had dismissed Dubey's petition on a delay of 259 days in filing the case against the environment ministry and state government's nod, which came in May 2025. The tribunal said that it had no jurisdiction to condone the delay beyond the 90-day period. 

 

Dubey said that the limitation period is required to be calculated from December 2025 when the deforestation activity on the field started and he came to know about the permission. The protest and agitations against the forest diversion were highlighted in the local newspaper, therefore, the environment ministry's orders came to public domain in December 2025, said Dubey. Thereafter, he collected the relevant papers from different sources and could prepare the appeal for filing only this year, said Dubey. 

 

In 2024, Adani Power's arm Mahan Energen Ltd. had approved a proposal to merge coal mining firm Stratatech Mineral Resources with itself to improve fuel security. At 1141 IST, the shares of Adani Power Ltd. were up 1.3% at INR 223.13 on the National Stock Exchange.  End

 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Akul Nishant Akhoury

 

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