Story: The Reporters’ Collective, recently revealed that the Union government removed four forestland parcels from its flagship green scheme for conservation, after Gujarat claimed that the Adani group had asked for the lands to build its projects on.

The story cited records accessed through the Right to Information Act, showing, Gujarat government in its official letter to the Union government’s agency  had said the four parcels were “demanded in Adani Company’s proposal of FCA.”

We shared the documentary evidence, including this letter from the Gujarat government.

You can read the story here.

Before Publication

Before publication of the report we mailed detailed queries to the Gujarat government. It denied requesting withdrawal of the forests from the conservation plan for the Adani group. 

In response we shared Gujarat’s own correspondence with the state government to give it another chance to reframe its response in light of the hard evidence. It did not respond. 

These facts were reported by us, including Gujarat’s false claims. 

After Publication

Three days after the story was published, on 19 December, the Gujarat government wrote to us again. 

In its rejoinder, the Gujarat government has claimed the story is “factually incorrect and misleading”.

It added that “no new plantation has been done” on one forest parcel because  it had received preliminary approval for deforestation in 2018. For the rest, it said that plantations had been carried out under state schemes since they did not receive any funds through the Green Credit Programme.

We wrote to the Gujarat government for clarification. We asked, if the Gujarat government denies the existence of its letter to the Union government, informing that the four forest sites have been “demanded in Adani Company’s proposal of FCA,” and so they should be released from the plans for afforestation under the Green Credit Scheme. 

Our Editorial Response

The Reporters’ Collective stands by all the facts, evidence and assertions in the investigative report in entirety.

The story by our reporter is backed by hard documented evidence in the form of official papers obtained under Right to Information Act which no stakeholder, including the Gujarat government, has denied the existence of. No stakeholder has also denied the reporters’ reading of these documents as reported in the story. 

Yet, going an extra mile, to provide our readers the opportunity to read all claims, we are publishing the response of the Gujarat government to our investigation.

Gujarat government’s rejoinder can be read here.

The story, with all original evidence, can be read here.

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