Jaiswal discusses environmental issues with Ramesh:Calls for revisiting forestry clearance procedure

Concerned over the delay in the grant of forest clearance for coal mining projects, the Minister of State for Coal, Sriprakash Jaiswal, has requested the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to revisit the procedure being followed by the latter to sanction forest diversion proposals for coal mining ventures. In a recent communiqué to his counterpart in the MoEF, Jairam Ramesh, the Coal Minister has alleged that though such diversion proposals are expected to be approved by the MoEF within 150 days of receipt, as per the guidelines of the MoEF itself, the environment ministry usually takes three to six years, or sometimes even more time, to take decisions, thereby hampering the progress of the mining ventures. Moreover, the MoEF has, of late, adopted the approach of refusing forest clearance for the coal mines that are feared to be located in areas prohibited for coal-mining activities, even though a final agreement on the categorization of 'go' and 'no-go' zones is still forthcoming, added Jaiswal.

The Coal Minister has also claimed that a large number of notified Reserve Forest areas in the country are actually denuded or have sparse vegetation. However, when it comes to approving coal mining operations in such areas, the MoEF, as well as the State Forest Departments, takes an unduly long time. In light of these facts, Jaiswal has sought the intervention of Ramesh, so that forest clearance proposals are put on on fast track and to ensure that the country is not deprived of the precious dry fuel.

Reiterating the coal ministry`s longstanding demand for a standardized set of terms of reference (ToR) for all coal mining projects, the Coal Minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, has requested the Environment and Forests Minister, Jairam Ramesh, to take swift action, as this would enable mine developers to save the large amount of time, presently, being consumed for the prescription of mine-specific ToRs by the environment ministry. These developers would, instead, be able to directly prepare the environment impact assessment (EIA) reports and environment management plans (EMP) for their respectove projects, thereby, fast tracking the final grant of environment clearance

Seeks standard ToR for coal projects

To shore up his case, the Coal Minister has asserted that more than 95% of the particulars for all coal mines in India are similar, even as only two different mining techniques are prevalent, namely opencast and underground techniques. The environment ministry, where applicable, can issue mine specific guidelines for the remaining 5% of coal mine features, Jaiswal maintains. In this manner, the time required for the grant of environmental clearance can be reasonably reduced, even as environmental safety guidelines would still need to be adhered to.

Pertinently, as per the prevalent norms of the MoEF, the coal-mine developers have to first approach the MoEF for the prescription of the ToR for their mines, which usually takes two to five months, if not more. Following this, the EIA reports and EMP plans are prepared and submitted by the project developers to the MoEF for the grant of environment clearance to their proposed mining ventures.

Endorses CIL's call for review of 'no-go' areas

The Coal Minister, Sriprakash Jaiswal, has called on the Environment and Forests Minister, Jairam Ramesh, to consider Coal India Limited`s (CIL) proposal to revisit its assessment marking a significant chunk of coal bearing areas of the country as "no-go" for mining activities. According to Jaiswal, this stipulation of the environment ministry, which has so far assessed just nine out of the 64 coalfields in the country, is likely to reduce the availability of domestic coal reserves by more than 600 million tonnes (MT), thereby aggravating the coal shortage prevailing in the country.

Pertinently, the MoEF has, recently, prepared maps of major coalfields in the country, indicating the boundaries of the constituent coal blocks, vis-a-vis the forest cover in the area. These maps have been jointly developed by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), under the MoEF, and the Central Mine Planning & Design Institute Limited (CMPDI), to indicate the forest cover over identified coal blocks. The exercise was aimed to facilitate transparent and objective grant of forest clearance to various coal blocks lying under the command area of these coalfields. A similar exercise for the remaining major coalfields in the country is presently underway. Apart from the Hasdeo-Arand Coalfield in Chhattisgarh, which has been specified entirely as a `no-go` zone, the Singrauli Coalfield, Wardha Coalfield, Ib Valley Coalfield, North Karanpura Coalfield, West Bokaro Coalfield, Talcher Coalfield, Sohagpur Coalfield and Mandraigarh Coalfield have also already been mapped by the MoEF.