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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.