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The Centre’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has recommended stage-I forest clearance for three major coal mining projects involving diversion of over 1,700 hectares of forest land and the felling of nearly 389,000 trees. A total of 13 projects has been cleared, totalling over 2,000 hectares of forest land, the latest minutes of the meeting shows.

A representational image of a forest. Three coal mining projects received Stage-I forest clearance involving large-scale forest diversion and tree felling. (AFP)The committee, in its meeting on July 6, has recommended stage-I approval for the Alaknanda Coal Mine in Odisha; the Purunga Underground Coal Block and the Pelma Open Cast Mine – both in Chhattisgarh. Together, the three projects account for 1,737 hectares of the 2,004 hectares of forest land recommended for diversion across 13 projects considered by the committee.

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The Minutes, which HT has seen, state the Purunga coal block project in Chhattisgarh will require the felling of 4,368 trees. The state reported the occasional stray movement of wildlife species such as the Jungle cat, Asian Elephant, Indian Pangolin, Sloth Bear and the Indian Fox in and around the land proposed for diversion. For this, a ₹14.81 crore wildlife management plan has also been approved.

The Pelma open cast mine project covers a total mining lease area of 2,077.935 hectares, of which 362.109 hectares was forest land. A total of 52,570 trees is proposed to be felled in the project. The state forest department has noted the presence of stray elephants moving through the area, though no proper elephant corridor exists here, it said.

However, by far the largest impact will be from the Alaknanda coal mines project in Odisha, with over 330,000 trees likely to be hit.

Experts said the projects, particularly the Alaknanda coal block – impacts a significant area of forest land, while also displacing village and forest-communities. “Similar to the Sijimali bauxite mining project in Odisha, where the rights of the indigenous communities have been violated, the Alaknanda site in Odisha is also scheduled tribe land and so not only does it impact a large number of trees and key forest patches, it impacts villages,” said Prakriti Srivastava, a retired IFS officer who was also part of the environment ministry.

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For forest clearances and diversion of forest land for development projects, three stages of clearances are typically required under the Forest Conservation Act. While stage-1 clearance is an in-principle approval, a stage-2 clearance is granted after all conditions laid down are met. This is the final approval. This is followed by a final diversion order issued by the state to complete the process.

Besides the three coal projects, the committee also recommended Stage-I approval for diversion of forest land for Tata Steel’s Gandhalpada Iron Ore Block in Odisha, the Surajkund Tourism Complex in Haryana, a CRPF battalion campus in Tripura, three hydrocarbon exploration proposals by Oil India in Tripura, a Jal Jeevan Mission drinking water supply scheme in Karnataka, and three BPCL proposals for access roads to retail outlets in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Together, these projects account for about 267 hectares of forest land and the felling of 32,808 trees – a fraction of the forest diversion and tree loss linked to the three coal mines.

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