Led by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who chaired a meeting between Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal and Environment and Forests Minister Jairam Ramesh, the two ministries today initiated an exercise to identify prima facie ‘A’ and ‘B’ areas for coal mining in nine major coalfields.
The development comes two days after the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) released 380,000 hectares of land for coal mining — which was earlier classified as “no-go” area because of fragile ecological conditions. The coal ministry wanted 450,000 hectares while the environment ministry had agreed to 349,000 hecatres. This, however, does not include the Hasdeo-Arand field in Chhattisgarh, which the Prime Minister’s Office and the coal ministry wanted to be freed.
The present ‘A’ areas, according to the exercise, would be those with rich forest cover and bio-diversity, where applications would not be entertained for forest land diversion. On the other hand, the present ‘B’ areas would be those where prima facie the statutory Forests Advisory Committee in the MoEF would consider proposals for diversion of forest land for coal mining purposes.
“This is an ongoing exercise which has to be based both on mapping of forest and coal reserves as well as field-level studies. The results of the ‘go’ and ‘no-go’ analysis are indicative. Further action will be taken by the government after a detailed analysis,” said an MoEF statement.
These nine major coalfields that were taken up for identification of “go/no go” areas for coal mining from the point of view of forest clearances were North Karanpura (Jharkhand), IB Valley (Orissa, Chhattisgarh), Singaurali (MP, UP), Talcher (Orissa), West Bokaro (Jharkhand), Wardha (Maharashtra), Mandraigarh (Chhattisgarh), Hasdeo (Chhattisgarh), and Shoagpur (Chhattisgarh, MP).
