MAHAN FOREST, India (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Deep in the forests of central India, a battle between local villagers and two of India's biggest mining firms is brewing over a project to extract 100 million tonnes of coal reserves from a centuries-old forest.
The project by the Mahan Coal Ltd (MCL) - jointly owned by London-listed Essar Energy Plc and Mumbai-listed Hindalco Industries Ltd - was given clearance by the environment ministry last month, but villagers say they were not consulted in accordance with a new forest law which gives them a say in whether mineral resources should be extracted.
