Centre to give forest clearance to thermal power project.

The Forest Appraisal Committee of the Ministry of Environment and Forests, which looks into forest land diversion issues in the country, will meet in New Delhi soon to give forest clearance to a 4,000 MW thermal power project proposed by Telangana Generation Corporation at Damaracherla in Nalgonda district.

The committee chairman and Union Environment and Forests Minister Prakash Javadekar told a press conference recently that the Ministry evaluated the forest land diversion within a record one month after Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao submitted the project proposal to him in the backdrop of power crisis the State was facing. A team of the regional office of the Ministry at Chennai studied all aspects and approved forest clearance without compromising on any of the environmental conditions. The proposal of another thermal project at Visakhapatnam in which the Telangana government held stake would also be considered, he said.

Mr. Javadekar said the forest clearance was a win-win situation for both the Centre and Telangana governments because it entailed diversion of 4,000 hectares of degraded forest and developing revenue land nearby of same extent with greenery. The State government had already contributed to the compensatory afforestation fund for the purpose. The Ministry would develop a real forest in the revenue land transferred by the State government, he added.

The Minister released on the occasion projects cleared by his Ministry in Telangana that included diversion of 6,975 hectares of forest land in favour of Indian Army for field firing ranges at Rachakonda. Six coal projects of Singareni Collieries Company Limited in Khammam and Karimnagar were also cleared. He also said the Ministry had fast-tracked giving forest clearances online to avoid delay in implementation of projects. They were pending with the Ministry for three to four years in the past.


THE HINDU