Ongoing story
Felling of borer-affected sal trees begins in Madhya Pradesh's Dindori forest division
2 updates, 20 September 2026 to 29 September 2026.
- 20 September 2026:
Centre grants permission to fell over 156,000 borer-hit sal trees in Madhya Pradesh
The central government has granted Madhya Pradesh's forest department permission to fell more than 156,000 sal trees in the Dindori and Amarkantak forest divisions after an aggressive sal borer beetle infestation left the trees dead or dying, with felling expected to begin in October 2026. The Dindori forest department had originally sought approval for around 147,380 trees, citing the Karanjia range as the worst affected area. Officials have pointed to the state's last major sal borer outbreak in 1995, when more than 500,000 trees, including many healthy ones, were eventually cleared after early warnings went unheeded.
- 29 September 2026:
Felling of borer-affected sal trees begins in Madhya Pradesh's Dindori forest division
Felling of sal trees affected by the sal borer beetle began in Madhya Pradesh's Dindori forest division, with about 2,000 of the roughly 146,000 identified trees cut so far, officials told Down To Earth, and the operation targeted for completion by March 2027. Ram Prasad, a retired Principal Chief Conservator of Forests who had refused to sign a similar felling recommendation in the 1990s, questioned the basis of the current decision, saying independent experts and stakeholders should have been consulted and the infestation studied as a wider ecosystem issue involving forest fires, overgrazing, soil erosion and declining natural regeneration. The Forest Department has set up a temporary depot near Gadharsai for the felled timber.