Can’t ignore recognition of community forest rights: Ramesh slams Chhattisgarh coal project clearance

New Delhi: Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday slammed the Centre over environmental clearance to a coal mining project in

Chhattisgarh, saying the recognition of community forest rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, cannot be wished away.

The former environment minister said that on January 15, 2024, the two-member Bhopal Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) delivered a 209-page judgment quashing the environmental clearance given on July 11, 2022, to the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited (MAHAGENCO) for mining of coal at Gare Palma, Sector-II in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh.

The Congress general secretary in charge of communications said the open-cast mine covers an area of over 6,300 acres spread across 14 villages. Of this, about 8 per cent is a rich forest area.

“The judgment was detailed and concluded: The procedure prescribed by law for the grant of environmental

clearance had not been followed both in letter and spirit,” Ramesh said.

It stated that the requirement for a public hearing had not been met in accordance with the prescribed law, the Congress leader said.

“The project’s impact on public health, hydrology, and its cumulative effect on the local ecosystem had neither been properly considered nor appraised,” Ramesh said, citing the judgment.

“Within just seven months, however, a fresh environmental clearance was issued. Now, massive tree felling has commenced. Should we be surprised and shocked? Perhaps not, since the mine operator and the developer are the Adani Group,” he said in his post on X.

“At the very least, the NGT must convince itself that the grounds for its initial rejection are no longer valid, that proper public consultations have indeed been held, and that health, hydrology, and cumulative impact assessments have indeed been carried out in a professional manner,” Ramesh said.

In addition, the recognition of community forest rights under the Forest Rights Act, 2006, cannot be simply wished away, he added.