The ongoing auction of 41 coal mines across the country would open up pristine and contiguous forests for mining in parts of Central India, government documents show, even as the Ministry of Environment of the Union has stated that decisions on auctioning have been taken on a case-by - case basis.
Until 2015 , the government considered declaring dense forests of hydrological value, and those near or overlapping streams and rivers as inviolate and therefore no mining zones.
Jairam Ramesh, then Union Environment Minister, proposed a no-go area classification for coal mining in 2009-10, and nine major coal blocks were studied for their biodiversity and forest cover.
As many as 70 per cent of the blocks were found to be suitable for mining, while 30 per cent were classified as no-go areas. But classification has never been carried out as a result of rigid resistance from the steel, power and coal sectors.
Ramesh 's successor, Jayanthi Natarajan, began an exercise to categorize inviolate forest areas in 2012. A group of ministers was formed earlier in 2011 to consider environmental and development issues related to coal mining. It suggested that all forests which can not be regenerated to the desired capacity should be protected, according to the Environment Ministry's July 2012 report.
The report, a copy of which HT has seen, dealt with the definition of parameters for the identification of inviolate forest areas. The parameters included forest type and cover, biological wealth, wildlife value, landscape integrity and hydrological value.
The Indian Forest Survey, the Indian Wildlife Institute, the National Biodiversity Authority and the National Tiger Conservation Authority have been tasked with applying these parameters and compiling a list of inviolate areas, according to the report.
Nandikesh Sivalingam, Director of the Center for Energy and Clean Air Research, received a list of proposed inviolate areas under the Law on Right to Information (RTI) from the Ministry of Environment in 2015.
The list showed that almost 50% of the 825 existing and future coal blocks met the parameters of the inviolate area. Sivalingam filed more queries under the RTIs, but did not receive any information on the implementation of the policy on inviolate forest areas.
Fatehpur East, Morga II, Morga South (Hasdeo Arand) in Chhattisgarh and Bandha in Madhya Pradesh are some of the 41 blocks that have been auctioned for the 2015 list of inviolate areas. A description of the mines to be auctioned on the Metal Scrap Trade Corporation (MSTC) website shows that several mines do not require forest clearance and are in the midst of protected forests.
For example, 19 sq km of Madanpur North 21 sq km of Chhattisgarh is forested and several streams pass through it before entering the Hasdeo River. It is waiting for both forest and environmental clearance. Morga II has an area of 26.64 sq km, of which 85 per cent is in forest land. The area falls within the Hasdeo drainage, a major tributary of the Mahanadi River. Almost the entire Morga South coal block is spread over the forest land as described on the MSTC website.
Environment Ministry Secretary RP Gupta said they came up with parameters and auction decisions will depend on the location, importance and nature of the projects.
Officials cited the case of Jharkhand's Saranda Forest and said that mining was restricted to a part of it after a study was conducted there.
