Overview
- The Centre's Forest Advisory Committee issued a stage-I (in-principle) recommendation on July 7 to divert more than 750 hectares in Angul for the Alakananda coal block allotted to Rungta Sons Pvt Ltd.
- FAC minutes record that over 3.3 lakh trees would be felled in the conversion of mature forest to mining infrastructure and access areas.
- The proposed lease lies about 4.9 km from the Similipal–Satkosia Gorge tiger corridor and about 8.5 km from the Sambalpur elephant reserve, and is bordered by the Olhani and Tikra rivers, raising risks of habitat fragmentation and waterway impacts.
- The FAC attached conditions before any stage-II (final) clearance, including compensatory afforestation, a minimum 50-metre safety barrier along the Olhani river, a regional wildlife-management plan approved by the chief wildlife warden, and phased tree felling in consultation with the state forest department.
- Project documents say 818 families will be displaced and 1,584 households across five villages will be affected, and conservationists warn that compensatory planting and the listed safeguards cannot fully restore biodiversity, carbon storage or local livelihoods, a concern set against a longer history of large-scale forest diversion for mining in Odisha and India.