Mechanism on anvil to free coal blocks from no-go list

At a time when many coal blocks have come under a ‘no-go’ restriction, the government plans to tweak the approach adopted for calculating the green cover of a block-bearing region to dilute the average affected forest land.

While this measure would not reduce the impact of mining on the environment, it will help free around 25 per cent area from the no-go list.The mechanism, if adopted, could come as some relief for around two dozen companies, including NTPC, Coal India, Hindalco, Essar Power and Adani, whose coal blocks have come under the no-go shadow.

“The suggestion came up during the course of discussions on this matter in one of the meetings held in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The idea is to bring down the area covered under no-go regions,” said a senior official from the Planning Commission.

So far, the environment ministry’s approach has been to classify all those areas as “no go” which have at least 30 per cent gross forest cover (GFC) and at least 10 per cent weighted forest cover (WFC). According to the proposal, the methodology adopted for classifying the no-go areas would be tweaked to bring down the average forest density of a block-bearing region below the threshold of 30 per cent GFC. This is achieved by clubbing moderately dense areas with adjoining low-density areas. This automatically leads to exclusion of such areas from the no-go list.

Explaining the proposed mechanism, the official said if a dense no-go area with 40 per cent GFC is clubbed with an adjoining “not-so-dense” area with, say, 10 per cent GFC, the average GFC of the two areas taken together works out to 25 per cent, which is less than 30 per cent GFC threshold. This region would, thus, be freed.

“The mechanism will allow the government to free at least a fourth of the blocks currently held up owing to the no-go criterion,” the official said. Asked whether the new scheme would work, as the overall area covered under mining operations would not undergo any change, the official said, “At least some blocks would be freed from the so-called no-go list.”

The environment ministry’s categorisation specifies regions where coal mining can be permitted only after stringent forest clearances are obtained. Though this is only indicative in nature, it has worried power project developers, as several existing and upcoming mines now fall in areas barred for mining.

The no-go criterion covers nine coalfields including Singrauli, North Karanpura, Ib Valley, Mand-Raigarh, Talcher, Sohagpur, Wardha Valley, Hasdeo-Arand and West Bokaro. While Hasdeo-Arand in Chhattisgarh is totally under the no-go area, the share of no-go is 60 per cent in Mand-Raigarh, 44 per cent in Singrauli and 35 per cent in IB Valley. Overall, 203 coal blocks with reserves of over 600 million tonnes and linked power projects of over 50,000 Mw capacity have been stuck due to the criterion.

Earlier this year, PMO had undertaken joint meetings with the officials of the coal and environment ministries as the environment ministry had put almost half the regions in the nine coalfields in the no-go zone. A high-level committee under Planning Commission member B K Chaturvedi is currently trying to work out a mechanism to provide preference to companies developing the threatened projects during coal block allocation. “The Planning Commission’s view is that the criteria of 30 per cent GFC and 10 per cent WFC is not a viable and realistic proposition because the overall forest cover of India is itself 30 per cent,” the official said.

The Commission has been pitching for replacing the environment ministry’s controversial classification with a system of identifying dense and non-dense forest areas separately and not allowing any mining activity in dense areas, or allowing only underground mining at best.

The commission has also conveyed to the government its stand that even in non-dense areas mining should be carried out in phases to ensure that at any given point of time mining activity is not carried out in more than 20 per cent of the overall forested area.

The official also said that as discussions on the matter were progressing, the environment ministry was also “gradually coming to the ground that more areas need to be freed up for developmental activity”.