More than four months after the National Green Tribunal suspended the environmental clearance granted to Korean steelmaker Posco for its 12 million tonne per annum integrated steel complex in Oriss

MoEF team skips meeting people at project site

The Odisha government has decided to review the status of the Posco steel project towards the end of this week, even as an expert team of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) visited the proposed plant site on Tuesday. “We will review all mega steel investment projects on August 25 including the Posco plant. We have acquired all litigation free land in the area and will discuss about acquiring more land from disputed site,” said Rajnikant Singh, minister of state for steel and mines.

A four-member expert team constituted by the Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) is scheduled to visit the proposed Posco steel plant site near Paradip on Tuesday.

The team was formed by MoEF in line with the order of the National Green Tribunal which had suspended the environmental clearance of the project in March this year and wanted an expert team to visit the site to assess the impact of the project on the environment afresh.

The Odisha government has decided to resume the land acquisition process for South African steelmaker Posco’s project, which was stalled indefinitely in June last year following protests by villagers and Left leaders.

The decision was taken in a meeting convened by Chief Secretary B K Patnaik on 16 August, where officials of the Central Revenue Division Commissioner, Posco-India, Jagatsinghpur district administration and Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation of Odisha (Idco) were present.

The National Green Tribunal has asked the Union ministry of environment and forests to display forest clearances granted by it in the future on its own website within a week from the date when the

All cases on environmental issues — save those related to wildlife — will be transferred to the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which is not fully operational even more than a year after it was set

Ironically, flooding is vital for Kaziranga’s ecology. But as governments dither on an integrated river management plan, a sediment-laden Brahmaputra is killing too many too often.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has stopped authorities from taking any final decision to begin work on the country's longest sea link from Sewri in Mumbai to Nhava in Navi Mumbai, saying the project entails questions on environment.

It said "substantial questions relating to environment are involved" in the over Rs 8,000 crore Mumbai Trans Harbour Link Project (MTHLP) for building 22-km bridge on public-private partnership model.

The National Green Tribunal's decision to suspend the environmental clearance given to Posco vindicates the project's critics.