JAIPUR | May 12, 2016: Using the Right to Information Act, NGO Greenpeace has accessed documents from the ministry of environment and forest and climate change (MOEFCC) that show that 417 of 825 current and future coal blocks fall within areas that ought to be categorized as "inviolate" under hydrological parameters.

The NGO, in a press release issued a few days ago, said the Forest Survey of India had assessed 825 coal blocks based on parameters for identifying inviolate forest areas.

The MOEFCC has recommended excluding 250 metres on either side of a first-order stream (the tiniest tributary of rivers) while marking the boundaries of coal blocks. Greenpeace notes a whopping 50.5% of coal blocks, under that criterion, are in territory that is "partially inviolate".

A Greenpeace activist noted that although it was four years since the exercise of identifying inviolate areas began, the coal ministry had been auctioning and allotting forest areas for mines.

"Mining in forests beyond 250 metres of the river banks often has dramatic and detrimental impact on catchment, including water pollution, erosion and worsening water scarcity," says Nandikesh Sivalingam, Greenpeace campaigner, adding that there is a lack of information in these matters in the public domain. Mining in the central Indian forests could have serious impact on water sources, he warned.

(Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/)