The two-day meeting of Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) under Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) beginning on Thursday will discuss the fate of 22 projects which also include the proposal of Arcelor Mittal in Jharkhand, pending since 2005. The other projects are largely related to mining, infrastructure, irrigation and drinking water amongst others.
According to MoEF sources, maximum number of 10 projects relate to mining alone. This is followed by six proposals related to roads besides two irrigation projects and one each on highway, hydel power and drinking water.
Prominent amongst the mining projects lined up for discussion include the proposal of steel major Arcelor Mittal for diversion of 202.35 hectares of reserved forest for mining of Iron Ore and Manganese in Saranda Forest Division in West Singhbhum District of Jharkhand. The mine (located near Kiriburu mines of Steel Authority of India limited), if approved, is expected to meet the requirement for its proposed integrated steel plant of 12 MTPA capacity in the state.
Another important mining proposal pertains to diversion of 635.986 ha of forest land, once again in West Singhbhum district of Jharkhand. The User Agency has called for de-linking the grant of Forest Clearance of Gua Mines of Duargaiburu Iron Ore from the finalization of Integrated Wildlife Management Plan to be submitted by the State Government and granting Stage-I clearance to entire 635.986 ha of forest land originally applied for diversion.
At least four mining projects of CMPDIl in Madhya Pradesh under Coal India limited merely requires green nod for digging bore holes without calling for diversion of forest land.
The meeting is also likely to discuss the diversion of 154.910 hectares of forest land in favour of Water Resources Department of Madhya Pradesh Government in Panna District. Forest land proposed for diversion has 32,736 trees such as teak and other species.
One proposal, which is likely to be decided at the earliest, would be the withdrawal of diversion of 85.00 ha of forest land in favour of the Maharashtra Forest Department for rehabilitation of village Fulzari from Pench National Park. The proposal had earlier been accorded Stage-I approval by the MoEF . The state government has, however, proposed to withdraw the proposal as the villagers have now opted the package of rehabilitation, under which agricultural land is not required to be provided at the relocation site.
Another controversial project queued up for the FAC meeting is the diversion of 313.88 ha of forest land for construction of 700 MW Tato-II Hydro Electric Project on Siyom River in West Siang District of Arunachal Pradesh. The proposal had come up for discussion before the FAC in its earlier meetings.