Alok Shukla, convenor of the Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan and founding member of the Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti, has been awarded the 2024 Goldman Prize from Asia, a statement on April 29 said.

• Shukla has been declared winner for his efforts to save the forests of Hasdeo Aranya in Chhattisgarh.
• Alok Shukla led a successful community campaign that saved 445,000 acres of biodiversity-rich forests from 21 planned coal mines in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.
• In July 2022, the government cancelled the 21 proposed coal mines in Hasdeo Aranya, whose pristine forests—popularly known as the lungs of Chhattisgarh—are one of the largest intact forest areas in India.
• The Goldman Environmental Foundation, which gives away the prize, recognised that the Hasdeo movement’s “ability to successfully influence policy has made it a model for environmental justice in India and generated an unprecedented amount of national and regional solidarity”.