NEW DELHI | May 17, 2016: For Prakash Javadekar's environment ministry, Jairam Ramesh's go/no-go policy is a no-go, at least for now. And that means some high-profile/high investment projects, currently held up because of possible forest area violations, may get a go-ahead.
At least 10% of major pending projects, including the Rs 24,000-crore Rio Tinto diamond mining project in Madhya Pradesh , will benefit. So will around a third of the 800 coal blocks that can be developed.
Officials familiar with the matter told ET that the Javadekar-run ministry will not notify the long-pending go/no-go forest area categories.
Now termed as violate/inviolate, this classification was mooted by Jairam Ramesh, the environment minister in United Progressive Alliance, to keep some forest areas completely out of bounds for any commercial or mining activity.Under the National Democratic Alliance government, the policy was reviewed by a different committee and a report was submitted in August 2015.
But, officials said, the notification of go/no-go forest areas is unlikely to happen. If go/no-go areas are not notified, projects that may have faced the hurdle of 'inviolate' forest land can start operating, officials said. These officials spoke on the condition they not be identified.
"We have not taken any decision either way yet on the violate/inviolate issue. Under the Modi regime, forest cover has increased by 3,500 sq km and mangrove cover by 100 sq km," Javadekar told ET.
Officials said the decision to not notify the go/no-go areas was influenced by the fact that the draft categorisation showed 10-11% of India's forest area would be no-go areas and that many major projects would be affected.
NDA's proposed classification of violate/inviolate areas would have made more forest areas available for industrial activity than UPA's original plan. But even that would have meant blocking some very big projects, officials said. The Rio Tinto project would have had to tackle the issue of inviolate forest area, and would have not been cleared.
The Forest Advisory Committee under the environment ministry had had a meeting on the Rio Tinto project and the Madhya Pradesh government was advised to revise the project plan.
Infrastructure and economic ministries have been petitioning the environment ministry on rethinking the go/no-go area as such a classification, these ministries have argued, would have a major impact on industrial growth. However, a senior official with knowledge of the matter said the door had not been shut on the violate/inviolate issue, and that it was kept in mind when clearances for certain mining projects were held back.
The official added that a meeting of the committee may be convened to look at the issue keeping in mind the views of stakeholder ministries.
(Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/)