A month after kicking off online environment clearance system for industrial and infrastructure projects, Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFC) on Tuesday formally launched a similar e-window platform for forest approvals. This is aimed at minimising the need for human interface between project proponents and officials dealing with Forest Clearance proposals in the Central and the State Governments.
After easing out norms for border road clearances in the past, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday announced that approvals for laying all kinds of transmission lines besides construction of roads in 117 identified extremist hit districts across the country have also been relaxed.
Henceforth, such proposals would be treated under general category, which would be handled by the respective States. There will not be any need for anyone to make rounds in the Environment Ministry for approvals.
The web portal launched on Tuesday for online submission and monitoring of forest clearance proposals will enable real time monitoring of the Forest Clearance proposals to ensure that time-lines stipulated for processing of these proposals by various authorities in the Centre and State Governments are adhered to.
To facilitate smooth transition, for the initial one month, the project proponents will have option to file forest clearance applications in both online mode through this portal or in the offline mode as is being done by them. However, from August 15 onwards, all proposals for forest clearance proposals will be accepted only through online mode through this portal.
Javadekar further informed that to facilitate informed decisions on forest clearance proposals, the Ministry in association with the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Dehradun is developing a GIS based decision support system. This will consist of GIS layers on forest cover, forest types, biological richness, integrity of forest landscapes, geo-referenced boundaries of the Protected Areas, Eco-sensitive Zone of Protected Areas, notified tiger corridors, other important migratory corridors, habitat of rare and endangered flora and fauna etc.
The Minister stated that in order to facilitate the concerned States to effectively tackle the problem of left Wing Extremism (lWE), general approval has been extended for diversion of up to 5 hectares of forest land under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for construction of all categories of public roads by Government Departments in 117 identified lWE affected districts in the country.
He also informed that the grant of similar general approval for diversion of forest land required for setting up of Army Stations, Ammunition Depots, Training Centres and other support infrastructure, such as schools, hospitals, residential quarters etc. within 100 km aerial distance from the lAC was under active consideration of the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change. Earlier the minister had made similar announcements in connection with the construction of roads along the China border.