PANJIM: The Union Ministry for Environment and Forest (MoEF) has lifted the abeyance on the environment clearance (EC) of two more iron ore mining leases after State Forest Department clarified that the leases are neither located nor are part of forest land.
The leases belong to Geetabala Parulekar and Rajaram Bandekar.
The iron ore lease – Geetabala Parulekar TC No 55/51 and Rajaram Bandekar TC No 4/49 – were in the list of 22 mines that were not granted ECs as the leases have forest area or are located on forest land and had not obtained forest clearance (FC).
MoEF, through an order dated February 20, 2015 had lifted EC abeyance of 72 mining leases, and had said that the ECs in case of these 22 leases would be granted only after they obtained FC.
Both the leases have been granted the second renewal by the Directorate of Mines and Geology (DMG) under MMDR Act.
Speaking to Herald, Deputy Conservator of Forests (monitoring and evaluation) Arti Chaudhary confirmed that leases with TC No 55/51 and 4/49 have no forest area involved and hence the question of granting FC does not arise. A communication in this regard was moved to DMG and MoEF for lifting the EC abeyance.
“We have clarified to MoEF that these leases have no forest area involved and hence their EC abeyance be lifted,” she said.
“MoEF has wrongly included these two leases in the list of mines located on forest land. This misinformation could be based on the Justice M B Shah Commission findings,” Chaudhary claimed.
There are 20 iron ore leases having forest area or located on forest land and none have been granted FC, Chaudhary added.
As per MoEF, nearly 96 hectares of mining lease area of Rajaram Bandekar is located on forest land, while in case of Geetabala Parulekar the total area is 87.55 hectares.
