In the wake of the CBI raid implicating an officer of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) in arranging green clearances for certain mining projects in Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, the ministry has for now put on hold all projects associated with the implicated consultant.

Sources said a limestone mining project of Chariot Steel & Power located at village Raiboga in Sundergarh district has already been put on hold. The CBI had on January 16 recovered Rs 1.04 crore from a MoEF deputy director. He was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 7 lakh to arrange environmental clearance for an Orissa-based power and steel company.

Stringent environmental clearance rules for mining of minor minerals are set to be relaxed for mining projects involving 'brick earth' and 'ordinary earth'.

The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has recommended diverting over 500 hectares of forest land for an iron ore mining project in the Saranda forest division of Jharkhand, part of the core area of t

Days after the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) dragged the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to the apex court alleging delays in granting of forest clearance, the ministry has granted forest clearance to the 555-km Kishangarh-Udaipur-Ahmedabad National Highway widening project that had first sparked the conflict.

While the Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has recommended the project, it is not amused with NHAI's rather public finger pointing at MoEF. Minutes of the FAC meeting held on January 21-22 observe how MoEF has been "blamed unpleasantly" for delays.

Within days of China announcing three new hydroelectric projects on the Brahmaputra river and catching India by surprise, the Centre has set the ball rolling to build the strategic Tawang hydroelectric project in Arunachal Pradesh.

The 800-MW power project proposed to be built on the Tawang Chu river has got forest clearance, with the Environment Ministry waiving the cumulative impact assessment for stage-I clearance that it was earlier insisting.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has sought Rs 462 crore in its budgetary allocation for improving the forest cover in India by five million hectares over the next 10 years as part of

In a major step that could finally break the logjam over forest and environmental clearances to linear projects, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs has agreed to sort out issues coming in the way of implementing these projects, as far as requirements under the Forest Rights Act (FRA) are concerned.

Tribal Affairs Minister V Kishore Chandra Deo told The Indian Express that his ministry would support these projects, considering the need for roads and railways in tribal areas.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests is giving final touches to a plan that will insist on full forest clearance for the entire mining lease area, instead of granting clearance to a smaller sect

In a bid to speed up infrastructure projects, the Prime Minister’s Office is said to have asked the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) to issue fresh directions to facilitate ‘unconditional forest clearance’ waiving off the requirement for gram sabha nod for linear projects, small public utility projects and projects that do not ‘substantially’ affect the quality of the life of people.

While the PMO has been asking the MoEF for the last few months to examine ways to expedite the method of granting forest and environment clearance, in a meeting held on December 12, 2012, it was decided that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs will have to relax its guidelines. Both ministries are yet to issue any fresh circular.

Things may have come to a boil between the National Highways Authority of India and the Ministry of Environment and Forests over green clearances to road projects last week with the former going to court in protest, but they have been simmering for long enough. The NHAI has for long been demanding exemption from the Forest Rights Act for its road projects and now derives strength from the recent recommendations made by a Committee of Secretaries on the issue.

Chaired by the Law Secretary, this committee — specifically examining the NHAI’s demand vis-a-vis the ministry’s contentions — gave an opinion in favour of the NHAI. The committee has opined that the FRA may not be insisted upon as far as road projects are concerned.