Coal ministry sources said that it was willing to accept a formulation where a maximum of 15-20% forest is classified as “no go" or out of bounds for mining. But the environment ministry is of the view that a higher concession will not be ecologically sound. “Actually, the coal ministry is demanding almost a 30% increase in go areas in the nine coalfields that have been analysed, but I think that ecologically we cannot justify more than a 5% increase," environment minister Jairam Ramesh said.
The pressure on the environment ministry is substantial. Not only is the coal ministry pushing for a more liberal classification of forest. Its efforts find support from power and several state governments, which have been allocated coal blocks in these fields. Power minister Sushilkumar Shinde has been under constant pressure on account of slow capacity addition. He would oppose such a restriction of mining, too. A higher percentage of out of bound mines would seriously impact the country's power generation capacity programme — for the Eleventh plan the target is 78,577 mw. Seventy per cent of India's power sector is fired by coal. State chief ministers have begun ramping up the pressure for clearances for already allocated coal blocks in these fields. Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi is among those who have written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for his intervention over a coal block in the Hasdeo Arand field.
The coal ministry has also argued that Coal India Limited, a government-run mining agency, has good track record when it comes to reforestation. “CIL mines a little, then undertakes backfilling and plantations. As a matter of fact some of areas replanted by the CIL is now part of the no-go area that the environment ministry is talking about," a coal sector official said. Of the 619 million tonnes per annum of coal production that is likely to be impacted, 412 MTPA is in CIL areas. The environment ministry is not impressed with the CIL efforts. Sources in the environment ministry said that they were “studying the matter". Read the full article here.
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Source: Urmi A Goswami, ET Bureau, New Delhi
