National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

order to have uniformity of approach, it has been suggested that compensatory afforestationcharges be fixed by the Central government based on the forest area and topography of eachstate. Further, the compensatory afforestation charges should be staggered over the entirelease period and collected on a yearly basis. It is suggested that there should be nodifferentiation in the stipulation of compensatory afforestation charges in the leases of lowvalueand high-value minerals.3.35 The State Forest Departments of some of the states have issued instruction that formovement of minerals in the forest area, mining companies have to obtain a Transport Permitfrom the forest authorities by paying an additional royalty for specified major and minorminerals. The mining industry is already burdened with various forest levies, from NPV tocompensatory afforestation charges. Any additional levies for transportation in the forest areacan have an adverse effect on the viability of mining operations.3.36 Presently the processing takes place at multiple levels, making the forest clearanceprocess extremely time consuming. In order to avoid unnecessary delays in the processing ofapplications for diversion of forest land for mining, it is suggested that the levels at the stategovernment be reduced to three, i.e. District Forest Officer, Nodal Officer, and Secretary,State Forest Department.ENVIRONMENT (PROTECTION) ACT, 19863.37 Mining projects of major minerals of more than 5 hectares lease area requireenvironmental clearance as per the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notificationdated 27 January 1994. After the Supreme Court judgment of 18 March 2004 [in the matterof Writ Petition (civil) 4677 of 1985 M. C. Mehta Vs. Union of India and Others] the saidEIA notification was amended on 28 October 2004 to include all mining projects of morethan 5 hectares that had until then not obtained environment clearance and they were requiredto obtain the same at the time of the renewal of the lease. Thus while the 1994 notificationdealt with prospective applications the Supreme Court judgment extended this to alloutstanding leases as well.3.38 Environmental clearance procedure has three components. First, an EIA study has tobe submitted as part of the clearance procedure and there are special rules relating to the87