As corporate houses continue to grope in the “no go” areas, the Madhya Pradesh government has found a ray of hope to rescue them out. The authorities are looking into possibilities to replicate the model of land diversion and forest mitigation in a certain mining pocket of neighbouring Chhattisgarh.
If all goes well, this plan will aid some industrial biggies in Tara coal block of Arand coalfields, which has “no go” areas where the Union government has denied coal linkage to Hindalco, Mesco, Essar and Reliance among others. The combined investment of these companies may cross Rs 50,000 crore in Madhya Pradesh.
The state may also allow its officials to provide consultancy to private players on some typical issues that bar them to counter legal matters of forests in coal-related issues.
The Centre, on its part, had recently okayed diversion of forest land in Tara block in favour of Chhattisgarh Mineral Development Corporation. This project will give Madhya Pradesh 100 Mw power. Once the diversion exercise is over, Tara coal block will set stage for a 1320-Mw thermal power project which fertiliser major Iffco has proposed in Chhattisgarh.
The moves come amid a blanked ban that the ministry of environment and forest has imposed on various coal blocks in Madhya Pradesh. Sources in state government say private players want senior forest officials to support them in the forest mitigation planning and lend legal support in tackling the Centre’s stringent rules and norms.
Forest department additional principal conservator R N Saxena says the government can adopt felling of trees in a planned manner to mitigate other forest areas where it has coal reserves — much like what forest officials will do in Tara block. “In fact, wildlife management is also possible in a similar fashion,” he told Business Standard.
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The Tara block has 317 million tonnes of coal with extractable quantity of 252 million tonnes that will be enough for feeding 1,320-Mw thermal power project for another 40 years.
As for the Tara project, Saxena says forest land area of 1,324 hectares (in place of the originally-proposed 2301 hectares) will be diverted in five phases. This will cost Rs 515 crore. Of this, Rs 12.58 crore will be required for the mitigation of wildlife (mainly elephants), Rs 105.60 crore for landscape management, Rs 336 crore for plant reclamation, Rs 59 crore for compulsory forestation and Rs 3.75 crore for safety zone management. Another 67.90 crore will be invested in human rehabilitation.
Iffco has reportedly obtained financial closure and will start setting up plant and machinery soon. “By 2050,” adds Saxena, “we will not only have extracted coal from Tara block; the government will have the entire forest land in hand. Also, there will be a huge lake created to fulfil local water requirement.”
Tara coal block has four villages —Maheshpur, Kantaroli, Abhaipur and Janardanpur — that are to be rehabilitated. A few wildlife species like elephant, which will be protected through electrified fencing.
The entire forest area has age-old sal trees, and Saxena says the felling of trees will be done in a phased manner. More than one lakh tree will be felled and later reclaimed. The mining is planned mainly in the non-forest area, open forest and some part of moderately dense forest. The mine shall be operated for 25 years at six MTPA against earlier plan of 45 years.