Team News Riveting
Raipur, April 29
Convenor of the Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan (CBA) Alok Shukla has been selected from all over Asia for the globally prestigious Green Nobel Award 2024, also known as Goldman Environment Prize, for the work on environmental protection.
Every year a person from 6 continents of the world is honored with the esteemed award. “This is an honor to the efforts of the struggling tribal and environment loving people of Chhattisgarh and entire country,” Shukla said.
A citation released by the Goldman Environmental Prize read:
Alok Shukla led a successful community campaign that saved 445,000 acres of biodiversity-rich forests from 21 planned coal mines in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh. In July 2022, the government canceled the 21 proposed coal mines in Hasdeo Aranya, whose pristine forests—popularly known as the lungs of Chhattisgarh—are one of the largest intact forest areas in India.
A Natural Leader
Alok Shukla, 43, is a convenor with Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan (the Save Chhattisgarh Movement), an informal alliance of grassroots movements across Chhattisgarh. The alliance is member-driven, without any paid employees. Alok is also a founding member of the Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (Save Hasdeo Aranya Resistance Committee), a grassroots movement uniting forest-dwelling villagers across the region.
Growing up in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh, Alok witnessed the profound environmental and social devastation wrought by extractive industries. Acutely aware of unsustainable resource extraction, he decided to dedicate his life to protecting the water, forests, and land of central India, as well as supporting Adivasi tribes, which are the traditional stewards of the land.
An Ecosystem in Peril
On a visit to the rivers of Hasdeo in late 2011, Alok learned of the government’s plan to auction off coal blocks in the Hasdeo Aranya forests. He realized that the affected communities had little information about the mining process or awareness of their existing legal rights and began advising them on potential legal strategies and tactics. Previous Adivasi opposition to mining projects was somewhat disorganized and, as a result, two mines were brought online around 2010. Alok’s leadership had brought villages and local communities together in a unified movement that emerged in 2012 with the creation of the Save Hasdeo Aranya Resistance Committee.
In June 2020, several more coal auctions were announced, but fierce opposition from local communities stalled the process. In a major coal auction in December 2020, the central government invoked emergency provisions to move 21 coal blocks forward. Madhuresh Kumar, a national convener at the National Alliance of People’s Movements, noted: “The land acquisition law says that if a project is deemed to be of national importance, certain provisions can be bypassed, including community consent or requirements to hold a public hearing, and forest and land clearances can be fast tracked.”
Despite COVID-19 restrictions, in June 2020 Alok began organizing the villages in protest against the 21 proposed coal mines. In October 2020, he led local villagers to lobby the village legislative councils to designate 945,000 acres as the Lemru elephant reserve, protecting the elephant corridor and its boundaries from planned coal mines. Sustained community protest led the government to withdraw three mines from public auction in September 2020, and, after a 10-day, 166-mile protest march to the state capital of Raipur in October 2021 alongside 500 villagers, an additional 14 mines were canceled.
Alok garnered widespread support on social media and digital platforms by using the hashtag #SaveHasdeo. The campaign inspired creative acts around the country, including bike rallies and couples using the hashtag in their wedding invitations. In the spring of 2022, villagers began an indefinite sit-in and launched tree-hugging protests against the felling of 300 trees that had been cleared for the proposed mines. Alok met with local government officials and senior state leaders, held press conferences in New Delhi, gave interviews to radio and television outlets, wrote letters and petitions, organized protests, and held village assemblies with affected Adivasi communities.
In July 2022, the state legislature adopted a resolution against mining in the entire Hasdeo Aranya region and demanded cancellation of any existing allocations. Alok’s adept organizing of local communities and sustained strategy led the state government to cancel 21 coal blocks by July 2022, preserving the unfragmented, biodiverse Hasdeo Aranya forests from destruction by some of India’s most powerful corporations. Determined to save the lungs of Chhattisgarh from destruction, the Hasdeo movement’s ability to successfully influence policy has made it a model for environmental justice in India and generated an unprecedented amount of national and regional solidarity.
