Ministerial panel to take up ‘inviolate’ forest area issue today

NEW DELHI: The ministerial panel set up to assess the environment ministry’s report on identifying ‘inviolate’ forest areas where mining should not be allowed is expected to hold its first meeting on Monday. The nine-member Group of Ministers, headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, includes Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo, Power Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, Mines Minister Dinsa Patel and Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

The panel is also expected to take up for discussion the Morga-II coal block in Chhattisgarh. The block was allocated to Gujarat Mineral Developmental Corp (GMDC), which had entered into an agreement with KSK Energy Ventures to set up a 1,800-MW power plant. “The Group of Ministers ( GoM) may meet on February 18 to deliberate on issues with regard to Morga-II coal block in Chhattisgarh allocated to Gujarat Mineral Developmental Corporation,” a coal ministry official said.

The coal block is located in the dense forested area of Hasdeo Arand. Former Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had on July 3, 2011 issued an order rejecting forest clearance for the mine. However, this was not an acrimonious decision as KSK Energy too had decided it would prefer to work on the Bhalmuda block, which is located in the less forested Mand-Raigarh coalfield.

The decision to re-open cases that had been settled among stakeholders would not augur well for the environment ministry, which has been under immense pressure to continuously dilute its forest and environment protection norms. The Committee to Formulate Objective Parameters for Identifying Inviolate Forest Areas, set up in March 2012 under the chairmanship of then environment secretary Tishyarakshit Chatterjee, was tasked with formulating a scientific method of identifying forest areas where mining would be barred.