While the Coal Ministry stated that the Tara coal block was included in the auction process only after the revision of boundaries, the Chhattisgarh BJP demanded that the Congress should first answer for its own decisions on the coal block while it was in power at the Centre and the State.
Earlier on Thursday (September 10, 2026), Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh alleged that mining in the Tara coal block could destroy over 4,000 acres of dense forest and more than 10 lakh trees. He highlighted that the Chhattisgarh Assembly had unanimously opposed new coal blocks in Hasdeo-Aranya in 2022, while the State government, then run by the Congress under former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, had told the Supreme Court in 2023 that no new mines were needed. Mr. Ramesh also warned that mining could disrupt elephant corridors in the Lemru Elephant Reserve and threaten endangered species.
In a press statement issued on Friday, the Coal Ministry acknowledged that the Tara coal block, initially offered in 2023, was withdrawn from the commercial coal mine auction following a communication from the Chhattisgarh government requesting the exclusion of coal blocks located in the Hasdeo-Arand area. Consequently, coal blocks within the Hasdeo-Arand area that fell within the ambit of the Lemru Elephant Corridor were not offered in subsequent phases of the commercial coal mine auction.
“However, on December 11, 2025, a letter was received from the Chhattisgarh government regarding the inclusion of the Tara coal block, stating that ‘this coal block lies outside the Lemru Elephant Corridor and can be offered in the next phase of the auction’,” the statement added.
Later in the evening, senior BJP leader and Chairman of the Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation (CMDC) Saurabh Singh claimed that it was the Congress that had paved the way for mining there and advanced the forest clearance process.
He said that former Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had himself requested the Central Government to allocate the Tara coal block to the CMDC during his tenure. In June 2021, the then Chief Minister had formally requested the Union Coal Minister to hand over the Tara coal block to the CMDC, a press release issued by the BJP and attributed to him added.
The release, however, omitted any mention of the revised position of the Congress government in 2023 or the Assembly resolution of 2022.
Mr. Singh also stated that the path for mining in the Hasdeo-Arand region was cleared during the tenure of the then United Progressive Alliance or UPA government.
“Despite the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) not recommending the Tara and Parsa East & Kete Basan (PEKB) projects, the then Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, decided to grant clearance to both. Records show that Stage-I forest clearance was granted to the Tara project on June 23, 2011. Yet today, the same Jairam Ramesh is raising objections regarding Tara,” he claimed.
While asserting that mining operations would commence only after all necessary statutory and environmental clearances, including forest approval, as well as the fulfilment of stipulated conditions, are obtained, he also questioned the environmental impact estimated by the Opposition party. He dismissed the Congress’s claim regarding the felling of over a million trees as a blatant lie and claimed that, according to a rough estimate, barely one-tenth of “that number of trees would be cut for the Tara project”, and even that felling would take place in phases.
Mr. Ramesh had earlier said that no amount of compensatory afforestation could ever make up for the wanton destruction of such a huge natural forest area.