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Government has approved 250 proposals to divert 50,818 hectares of protected forest land since the Forest (Conservation) Act was passed in 1980.
Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Jairam Ramesh, informed the Rajya Sabha in response to a question that the maximum amount of protected forest land, 12,579.12 hectares, had been diverted for coal mining in Chhattisgarh, followed by Andhra Pradesh (12,709.62 hectares), Madhya Pradesh (10,980.37), Jharkhand (7,545.33), Orissa (2,899.99), Uttar Pradesh (1,984.83) and Maharashtra (1,815.09).
