Green nod details of security projects won’t be put on website, says ministry
It has also clarified some aspects of the compensation and compensatory afforestation for such projects
The Union environment ministry has clarified that details of projects related to the country’s internal and external security to which it grants environmental clearance will not be available on its PARIVESH portal, in the interests of security and confidentiality.
It has also clarified some aspects of the compensation and compensatory afforestation for such projects.
The clarifications came in response to a July query from the Union home ministry on guidelines for projects exempted under the Forest Conservation Amendment Act or Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980.
Section 1A of the Act which was amended in 2023, exempted certain projects from having to seek forest clearance: strategic linear ones national importance and concerning national security within a distance of 100 km from international borders or the Line of Control of Line of Actual Control; those related to security related infrastructure involving forest land up to ten hectares; defence related and public utility infrastructure involving forest land up to five hectares in Left Wing Extremism(LWE) affected districts, duly notified by the Ministry of Home Affairs or Ministry of Defence for this purpose; and those involving area up to 0.1 ha of forest land meant for providing connectivity to road/rail side amenities.
The home ministry was concerned that while these projects would receive exemption, their details would be public, leading to national security concerns.
In a letter to states and UTs sent earlier this month, and available on ministry’s Parivesh website, the Union environment ministry has clarified that “processing and approval of the proposals will be carried out using designated module of PARIVESH 2.0. However, keeping in view the strategic importance and sensitivity involved, the defence related projects will be masked and made non-accessible for open public access on PARIVESH portal.”
Based on decision taken by the Forest Advisory Committee in its meeting on August 27, the ministry has also clarified that land for compensating for the loss of trees may be identified in degraded forest land, revenue forest land, wasteland, that are twice as large as the land proposed for diversion or in non-forest land, equivalent in size to the forest land being diverted, as per availability on case to case basis.
The State or UT may authorize an officer not below the rank of the Deputy Conservator of Forests to receive and accept the proposals and process them through the Nodal Officer, dealing with the matters related to land transfer for obtaining the approval of State Government/UT, the ministry wrote.
The Divisional Forest Officer, within a period of one month, after receiving of such a proposal, shall arrange to carry out tree enumeration, prepare a scheme for compensating the loss of project affected trees in the land identified, project specific mitigation plans, if any are needed, and forward the proposal to nodal officer, along with demand for making the payment of Net Present Value (NPV), compensatory scheme, site specific mitigation plan, soil and moisture conservation plan, etc., as the case may be, the guidelines state.
NPV payments are made to compensate for the losses of forests and their ecosystem services because of infrastructure projects.
The user agency, within a month of receiving the approval from the nodal officer, shall deposit the compensatory levies into the account of state compensatory management authority. In case, the user agency fails to make payment against the demand raised within the stipulated time, 12% interest per month shall be levied on the amount not paid in time.
The environment ministry notified the guidelines on November 29, 2023 prescribing the terms and conditionst, but, while prescribing the terms and conditions, the provisions of compensatory afforestation and net present value have were addressed adequately, the minutes of the FAC meeting on August 27 add.
Some of these projects are “important for the national security and key to meet operational requirement of troops and stop any misadventure by India’s foes, For decades, the security establishment could not build strategic border roads due to lack of environment clearances,” said a government officer, who didn’t wish to be named.
“In border areas near Indo-China border, the strategic border roads and highways will also be beneficial for the local population and help in faster development of the Vibrant Villages (the ministry of home affairs launched a Vibrant Village Programme in 2023 to develop border villages),” this person added.
