Taking on Goliath

How one man led a successful campaign that saved 4,45,000 acres of forests from 21 planned coal mines in India

- Anu Prabhakar

WINNER OF THE 2024 Goldman Environmental prize, 44-yearold Alok Shukla is no stranger to extraordinary challenges. As a founding member of the Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, a grassroots movement of adivasis from about 30 villages in one of India’s largest contiguous forest tracks—the Hasdeo Aranya forest in Chattisgarh—Shukla has been locked in a real-life David vs. Goliath fight, battling India’s richest coal conglomerates.

Spanning over 1,70,000 hectares, the bio-diverse Hasdeo Aranya forest bears the burden of being resource-rich. It sits atop some 5.6 billion tons of coal, making it one of India’s largest reserves— and the focus of intense interest from coal corporations. These dense woodlands also serve as the watershed for the Hasdeo Bango reservoir, which irrigates 7,41,000 acres of farmland, and forms the life-force for nearly 15,000 Adivasis, such as the Gonds, who draw their both their sustenance and their identity from it. Shukla’s successful community campaign has saved 4,45,000 acres of these biodiversity-rich forests from 21 planned coal mines in Chhattisgarh.

Born in undivided Madhya Pradesh into a family of farmers, Shukla grew up in the lap of nature. Since gaining statehood in 2000, Chhattisgarh—44 per cent of which is forestland—fell prey to rapid development, changing the young state beyond recognition. With its natural resources under duress, several movements protesting this plunder took root.