Jairam agrees to free more forest land for coal mining

Ramesh also promised to review the threshold limits of the Comprehensive Environment Pollution Index to allow more coal-bearing areas into mineable zones.

The ministry said it would not apply the ‘go-no go’ classification retrospectively — so all projects that received stage-I forest clearance before December 31,2009,would be eligible for consideration for final approval. Final clearance will be on merit,and will not come automatically.

According to the initial classification in nine major coal fields of the country,mining projects were proposed to be considered in 396 of 602 blocks,comprising 53 per cent of the total area.

The environment ministry said that following an intervention from the Prime Minister,it was willing to increase this to 467 blocks,comprising 71 per cent of the total area,but rejected the demand for completely doing away with the classification,sources told The Indian Express.

Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said the categorisation put estimated reserves of 660 million tonnes in ‘no-go’ areas,jeopardizing the production of nearly 1.3 lakh MW of power. He told the GoM that it was imperative that all proposals on green clearances be cleared without any reference to ‘go’ or ‘no-go’ areas.

The environment ministry wants certain areas under dense forest cover to be out of bounds for coal mining,while the coal ministry argues that this would hurt production and,consequently,India’s energy security.

At the GoM,Ramesh responded to issues raised by his ministerial colleagues at a previous meeting. He made a detailed presentation describing the steps his ministry had taken to ensure speedy clearances for coal mining projects.

He said approvals were now being granted for maximum production capacity,thereby obviating the need for periodic clearances.

Jairam also spoke about the relaxation granted to Coal India,allowing it to carry out compensatory afforestation in degraded forests as well,rather than on revenue land only,as mandated under law.

Jairam said his ministry was even willing to scrutinise mining proposals in ‘no-go’ areas and explore options for reducing damage to forest land. In case a compromise was not possible,his ministry was prepared to bring the specific project proposal to the Cabinet for its consideration,he said.

The GoM will meet again,most probably after the current round of assembly elections.