The environment ministry appraises projects for two types of clearances - environmental and diversion of forests - and both are processed separately. In April 2009, the environment ministry had accorded environmental clearance to mine the sacred forests.
The clearance was immediately challenged before the National Environment Appellate Authority by the Dongriya Kondhs and activist Prafulla Samantra. The mandatory public hearing was done on the basis of one set of requisite documents, while the clearance was accorded by the ministry's statutory Environment Appraisal Committee (EAC) based on another set of documents, which was patently illegal.
The appellate authority rejected had the nod, and asked the environment ministry to take a re-look at the proposal. Also, environment minister Jairam Ramesh had rejected the forest clearance to Vedanta, leading Gandhi to champion the tribals' cause. Read the full report here.
Source: Nitin Sethi, TNN, New Delhi.
