The Ministry of Environment and Forests will consider permitting yet another coal mine in the dense Hasdeo-Arand forests of Chhattisgarh, an area that had earlier been declared too valuable to be opened up for excavation.
The Ministry’s statutory Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) in its next meeting shall review a proposal from the State government to permit boring in the Morga-IV coal block in the Katghora forest division that forms part of the Hasdeo-Arand forest complex in Chhatisgarh.
The coal block that spreads over 600 hectares in the dense forest area had been allocated to the Madhya Pradesh State Mining Corporation in 2007, which then formed a joint venture company with ACC to mine the area.
The Environment Ministry had recently permitted another mine in the area that the State government once wanted protected as an elephant reserve, a decision that was reversed in favour of opening coal mining blocks.
In 2011, the Environment Ministry made an exception to its own decision and cleared three coal blocks. It said the blocks were on the fringe of the dense forest area. The decision came despite the statutory FAC recommending against the clearance and its sub-committee noting that the State authorities had misrepresented facts to push their case.
The 2011 clearances came with the then Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh recommending that the government not approve any other coal block in future.
Then in April 2013, the Ministry gave the go-ahead to yet another block in the area. The FAC permitted mining in the 200-hectare Korba-II block in the sal forests, a project it had earlier rejected. The committee at that time noted that the project had been pushed by a Group of Ministers on coal and it would have “ordinarily not liked to recommend prospecting in such a good quality and biodiversity rich forest.” It washed its hands of the decision saying, “the Ministry may take a decision on the recommendation of the Group of Ministers.”
