A newly-proposed mining project in Gadchiroli district in Maharashtra has courted controversy due to the potential diversion of forest land to facilitate iron ore mining and processing. The project involves diversion of around 9.37 sq km of forest land, an area about half the size of New Delhi airport. Accordingly to news reports, this has raised questions about the project’s location within the Tadoba-Indravati tiger corridor, a key wildlife linkage connecting forests in Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh.
Decades of Maoist ideology-led insurgency in Gadchiroli meant that the forests in the district had largely remained insulated from rapid industrialisation that the rest of Maharashtra had been witnessing. That is likely changing with the recent announcements by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis regarding future development plans for the district. Furthermore, the controversy surrounding forest clearance granted to the proposed iron ore mining and processing project by Lloyds Metals & Energy has drawn attention to the ecological significance of Gadchiroli, arguably one of Maharashtra’s most forested districts.
The debate intensified after media reports revealed that maps submitted as part of the project proposal showed substantial overlap with the corridor identified in the National Tiger Conservation Authority-approved Tiger Conservation Plan for Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve. Despite this, the project was exempted from wildlife clearance requirements after state authorities concluded that the site did not fall within a recognised tiger corridor.
