Madhya Pradesh government won’t cut trees till October forMahan coal project

MUMBAI: The Madhya Pradesh government assured the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Monday that it will not cut a single tree for the Mahan Coal Ltd project till October this year, citing monsoons, signaling a further delay in mining coal for the Rs 6400-crore joint venture. Mahan Coal is an equal joint venture between Essar Power and Aditya Birla Group flagship Hindalco Industries. The coal mined will fuel power plants set up by Essar and Hindalco separately for 14 years.

About 5 lakh trees on 967 hectares of forest land will be cut over a decade. The District Forest Officer from the state told NGT that the process of demarcation and enumeration of the trees was going on currently and the first phase of deforestation on about 297 hectares of land will begin only in October once the monsoons were over. "As a law abiding corporate citizen, we are optimistic that we will create a benchmark in sustainable and inclusive development by taking care of environment while starting the mine at the earliest," said Ramakant Tiwari, CEO, Mahan Coal.

Tiwari was earlier optimistic to start mining coal in the next three months. The Ministry of Environment and Forest granted the 'Stage II' clearance to the project in February after Veerappa Moily took over the ministry. Mahan Sangharsh Samiti, the local body formed with the help of environmental campaign group Greenpeace, has protested against deforestation, claiming destruction of livelihoods of 50,000 tribals dependent on the forest.

Mahan Sangharsh Samiti has challenged the clearance in NGT, saying the green nod to the project is hasty and full of irregularities. Greenpeace India viewed the assurance as a temporary relief. "This is a temporary respite for us. We are determined to save our forests and will continue to oppose any mining related activities in our forest," says Hardayal Singh of Mahan Sangharsh Samiti and a petitioner in the case . The next hearing in the case will take place on July 23. Greenpeace has also alleged forgery of signatures during that the mandatory Gram Sabha resolution, where approval of villagers was taken. The government may seek approval from villagers again next month, Bloomberg reported last week, quoting region’s chief administrator M Selvendran.

Hindalco needs low-cost coal to produce energy intensive aluminium. About 6-7tonnes of coal is required to fuel power plants to make 1 tonne of this white metal. It is running out of coal at its other captive mines. The company is running its Mahan plant on coal transported from other regions, which is pushing up its input costs. Same is the case with Essar Power, which is a subsidiary of London-listed Essar Energy.