Projects in forest areas: Environ, forest clearances delinked

In a move to boost infrastructure projects in forest areas, environmental and forest clearances have now been delinked to initiate construction of highways and laying pipelines.
According to officials, the Environment Ministry has delinked the grant of environment clearance from forest clearance in case of linear projects involving patches of forest land along their alignment, often stretching to several hundred kilometres.
The partial modification in the September 9, 2011 guidelines was made after the Supreme Court last week allowed the Ministry to amend it and issue notification to implement the projects.
The original 2011 guidelines had stated that in case a project involves forest land, the project proponent should first explore feasibility to execute the project without use of forest land.

It had stipulated that in case it is not feasible to undertake the project without use of forest land, the project proponent should submit application seeking forest clearance before submitting the application for grant of the environment clearance.
The decision was taken a month after a meeting of environment and forest ministers convened by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh decided that linear projects will be exempted from Gram Sabha consent in order to streamline environment and forest clearance for critical infrastructure in forest and tribal areas.