ABSTRACT
The Indian government is opening new coalmines for economic recovery from the pandemic. Central India’s forests, which are home to Indigenous Adivasi communities, are a centrepiece in this economic approach. In Hasdeo in northern Chhattisgarh, home to Gond Adivasis and other forest-dwelling communities, the logging of forests for coalmines operated by Adani Enterprises are proceeding without people’s consent required under the Forest Rights Act 2006 (FRA). A ten-year resistance that is still ongoing has demanded that all coalmines approved without Indigenous consent be cancelled and communities’ legal rights to protect and manage forests be upheld. Drawing on my own doctoral thesis that analyses the political economy of coal in central India, and insights into the Hasdeo movement through being part of a global solidarity network for Hasdeo, this chapter addresses what we can learn from the Hasdeo resistance about what constitutes a gender-just climate future for Adivasi communities in forested central India.
Approvals for coal mines in central India’s dense forests such as Hasdeo that act as powerful carbon sinks contradict India’s pledges towards decarbonisation and climate mitigation. Apart from pushing forest-dependent communities towards greater climate injustice, at a time when sustainable, alternative economies need to be strengthened for a just energy transition. The movement exposes a critical human rights-based exclusion in the Indian government’s policies and practices, that of the rights, security, and sustenance of Adivasi communities while also exposing a state-corporate nexus that favours extractivism. The movement has persisted despite repeated violations of the FRA by the local administration and company agents. Movement members and other supportive civil society groups have been targeted for their resistance and criticism of the Adani Corporation. The resistance highlights the need to consider people-centric policies and practices that are gender-responsive, especially to strengthen grassroots democracy through the FRA and its effective implementation in central India, recognise Adivasi forest stewardship, and secure forest commons.
