Congress General Secretary Jairam Ramesh said on Wednesday (September 17, 2025) that the Union Ministry of Environment is wrong to say that the Dhiruli coal mining project of Madhya Pradesh does not fall into the protected area under the fifth schedule of the Constitution. He also claimed that on August 9, 2023, the then Coal Minister Prahlad Joshi had clarified that the project comes in the protected area under the fifth schedule.

On September 12, Ramesh alleged that the Dhiruli Coal mine Project of Adani Group in Singrauli district of Madhya Pradesh has violated the Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA) and Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA). However, the Madhya Pradesh government dismissed this charge.

The former environment minister posted on the social media platform X on Wednesday, ‘I raised the issue of huge disturbances in the approved process of’ Modani ‘Dhiruli coal mining project on 12 September. To this, the Union Environment Ministry reacted almost immediately and claimed that the mining area does not come in the protected area in the fifth schedule of the Constitution and the necessary legal process under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 has been duly completed.

He says, ‘The first claim is false. On August 9, 2023, the then Coal Minister gave a clear and concrete land in the Lok Sabha that Dhirauli coal mining project actually falls into the protected area in the fifth schedule of the Constitution. Ramesh said that as far as the second claim is concerned, the Forest Rights Act, 2006 includes not only individual forest rights, but also community forest resources rights and specially sensitive tribal groups.

The Congress leader said, ‘About 3,500 acres of forest land is to be diverted from five villages under the Dhiruli coal mine, and at least three other villages adjacent to these forests are also likely to depend on it. It is necessary to settle all three types of tribal rights first in these eight villages;

Ramesh said that on 31 March 2022, the District Collector had certified that the entire process of identification and disposal of rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 has been completed and the rights of specially sensitive tribal groups have been reserved. He claimed, ‘But, according to its information from the Government of Madhya Pradesh, in Singrauli district, where these eight villages are located, neither any community rights nor any housing rights have been recognized.’

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