Environment ministry has made it clear that no permission will be granted for diverting coal field areas which are not on the

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh and Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal today joined hands to solve the country

Sreelatha Menon / New Delhi June 19, 2009, 0:01 IST

Environment and Forest Minister Jairam Ramesh's decision to allow coal mining in all

In a bid to double coal production in the country by ensuring speedy environmental approvals to miners, the government is planning to limit coal mining activities to degraded forest areas.

Currently, coal mining is allowed in India both on degraded as well as non-degraded land areas subject to environmental approval from the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF).

New Delhi: The government on Thursday said it will develop model terms of reference (TORs) for coal projects to bring down the time taken in assigning environmental clearances to such projects from 3-5 years. Coalmine developers use the TORs in assessing the impact of mining projects on environment, and standard TORs can enable them to do this assessment in advance.

Green concerns: The Minister of Coal, Mr Sriprakash Jaiswal, and the Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr Jairam Ramesh, at a press conference in the Capital, on Thursday. The Environment Ministry will speed up the approval process for development of new coal mines. - V.V. Krishnan

Our Bureau

Ramaswamy R. Iyer

Environmental concerns have tended to be segmented, focussing on one theme at a time. It is necessary to ensure a holistic view encompassing all the themes and the vital nature-wildlife-human inter-relationships.

Unable to elicit a

June 16: India is losing over 2,000 patents every year on traditional formulations as they were never properly documented, the Union minister for state and environment, Mr Jairam Ramesh, said here on Tuesday.

The Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests, Mr Jairam Ramesh, on Tuesday set a target of increasing India