The $10 billion worth Adani Group seems to have come into some hurdles over its Mahoba power project in UP. This is because the state’s environment and forestry department has sued the group over violations. The state has alleged that the company has clear-felled 650 bighas of land without the prior permission.
It is learnt that last year, the UP government under Akhilesh Yadav had granted the Adani group permission to set up a power plant in the power-starved, arid Bundelkhand area. There used to be a veritable forest of mixed plantation of various trees in the region.
Having received the green signal from the state government, the Adani group grafted the land into its various 60 holdings.
Now the state forestry department is adamant that prior permission is a must for felling such kinds of trees under the Protection of Tree Act, 1979.
The fact cannot be missed that this is the same area where last year, the ruling Akhilesh government had spent crores for planting for more than a crore of saplings in its mission of a Green State, and also the same area where his rival Mayawati had spent money to worth Rs 500 crore to rehydrate the arid zone. That was in 2008-09.
Now local NGOs have also started asking what the cost benefit analysis of this project is for the locals.