Supreme Court declines to interfere with forest clearances for Adani's Madhya Pradesh coal block project

📌 Summary:

• The Supreme Court on May 21, 2026 declined to interfere with the environmental clearances granted to the Adani Group's coal block project in Madhya Pradesh's Singrauli district, citing the delay in challenging the approvals

• A Bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and Alok Aradhe was hearing a plea by environmental activist Ajay Dubey against an NGT order that had dismissed his challenge to the May 2025 clearance to Mahan Energen Ltd. (an Adani Power subsidiary) on grounds of limitation

• Limitation rule: Under Section 16 of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010, challenges must ordinarily be filed within 30 days, extendable by 60 days for sufficient cause

• The petitioner argued the project would fell nearly six lakh trees across about 27 sq km of dense evergreen forest — an area designated a "no-go" zone in 2011 and recognised as an elephant corridor — and that the matter warranted the Court's extraordinary powers under Article 142

• Key procedural dispute: The NGT calculated limitation from May 10, 2025 (when forest clearance was uploaded on the MoEF&CC website); the petitioner argued, citing the Talli Gram Panchayat ruling, that clearances must also be published in two local newspapers and on gram panchayat/municipal websites for adequate public notice

• The Bench suggested the petitioner pursue the matter via a writ petition; the plea was withdrawn with liberty to avail other legal remedies

• "No-go areas": During 2011-12 the MoEF&CC classified dense forests (canopy cover above 0.40-0.50) in MP and Chhattisgarh as zones where coal mining was impermissible in the larger environmental and public interest

🎯 UPSC Relevance: GS3 (Environment) — environmental and forest clearances, the EIA regime, the role of the NGT, and the tension between development projects and forest/biodiversity conservation.

📝 Prelims Facts:

• The National Green Tribunal (NGT) was established under the NGT Act, 2010

• Section 16 of the NGT Act sets a 30-day limitation period (extendable by 60 days) for appeals

• Article 142 empowers the Supreme Court to pass any order necessary for "complete justice"

• "No-go areas" (2011-12) were dense forest zones with canopy cover above 0.40-0.50 barred from coal mining

• The Singrauli coal block project lies in an area recognised as an elephant corridor

🔑 Key Term: Forest/Environmental Clearance — the statutory approval required before forest land is diverted for non-forest use or a project is set up, granted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change after appraisal of ecological impact.