The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has set a four-month deadline for remedial actions and recovering damages from the Kulda coal mine run by Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) in Odisha and the Tamnar thermal plant operated by Jindal Power Limited (JPL) in Chhattisgarh for transporting coal through villages in violation of environmental clearance (EC) conditions. This is one of the three cases initiated by the NGT taking suo motu cognisance of The Indian Express report (February 4, 2022) on six mega projects where stringent clearance conditions to compensate for the high environmental impact were sidestepped, ignored, or met only on paper. Kulda-Tamnar coal link MCL, a subsidiary of the world’s largest coal producer Coal India Limited (CIL), runs an open cast mine in Kulda. Barely 40 km away in Tamnar in Chhattisgarh, JPL, a subsidiary of Jindal Steel & Power Limited (JSPL), operates India’s first private sector mega thermal plant. Caught between the two are 14 villages on a cratered road on which coal-laden trucks run round the clock, choking lives and livelihoods under a layer of black dust, even as three extensions to the Kulda mine and five concessions to the Tamnar plant were granted since 2014 on promises of alternative coal transport arrangements. Serial violations condoned JPL started sourcing coal for Tamnar from Kulda in 2014. By 2015, Tamnar’s EC was amended twice to allow the transportation of coal by road as an interim measure with a March 2017 deadline for setting up a conveyor system. Subsequently, the Environment Ministry granted three more extensions — in 2017, 2019 and 2020 — to the “interim permission” before doing away with a deadline altogether. In February 2018, when MCL applied for capacity expansion at Kulda, the Environment Ministry expressed “deep concern over.the status of statutory compliances” before granting EC “in national interest” for one year. Citing that special road corridors were under construction, another one-year extension of the EC was issued in March 2019, followed by another extension of 30 years in January 2020. In May 2020, the Ministry notified that all thermal plants must transport coal by rail or conveyor. Five months later, it clarified that “coal may be transported by road” until “infrastructure regarding rail/conveyor system” was ready. In October 2021, asked by Orissa High Court to find a solution, the district collector of Sundargarh wrote: “The prayer of the villagers regarding stoppage of Coal Transportation by the Multi Axle Vehicles is not at all considerable.” Intervention by the NGT Last March, the NGT set up a committee with district magistrates of Sundargarh (Odisha) and Raipur (Chhattisgarh), members from central and state pollution control boards, and the Environment Ministry to ascertain facts in the case. Recording daily movement of around 700 coal trucks through villages in violation of the EC condition, the committee’s report in July 2022 concluded that “the allegations made in the matter of media report regarding coal transportation by road…were substantiated”. The report underlined that poor road conditions increased “whole body vibrations of the coal transportation vehicles and spillage of coal dust resulting heavy fugitive road dust” and its adverse impact on the health and safety of the people in the villages along the road. What happens now In its order on January 12, the NGT set a four-month deadline to: * Reconstruct the road to check dust pollution and recover the cost, if necessary, from MCL and JPL, * Recover compensation for past violations from MCL and JPL, and * Provide a timeline for setting up a conveyor system or rail link to transport coal from Kulda to Tamnar. The responsibility of completing the road is on the chief secretaries of Odisha and Chhattisgarh; the heads of the two state Pollution Control Boards will have to determine and recover damages on the ‘Polluter Pays’ principle. The NGT directed them to appear before the Tribunal if they failed to meet the deadline at the next hearing on May 15. Dibang hydel project The NGT's second case based on the news report noted that the Dibang hydel project received preliminary approval from the Environment Ministry’s Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) in 2014 with the precondition that a national park would be declared to protect the river basin. Despite non-compliance, final forest clearance was issued in 2020. After Arunachal Pradesh submitted that local people were “not willing to part away their land for declaration of National Park”, the NGT ruled last September that “nothing further remains for adjudication” and dismissed its own case. However, the FAC acknowledged last December that “the earlier approved projects… (have) a poor record of compliance” and that “there are a large number of representations” against the Etalin hydel project in Arunachal. “The instant proposal cannot be considered in the present form and a revised proposal may be submitted,” it said. Lower Subansiri hydel The third case initiated by the NGT based on the news report concerns the Lower Subansiri hydel project. It was granted forest clearance in 2004 on condition that around 900 sq km would be declared a sanctuary. Subsequently, this requirement was cut to 500 sq km sanctuary, and then to 168 sq km sanctuary and 332 sq km conservation reserve. But only 127 sq km has been notified so far. Following the NGT notice, Arunachal wrote to the Environment Ministry last September that a proposal to declare a sanctuary for the remaining 41 sq km was being considered, but notifying 332 sq km as a conservation reserve was not feasible due to local opposition. On December 29, the matter was placed before the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL), which, it is learnt, has accepted Arunachal’s position. The NGT will hear the matter again on January 20. Earlier in May 2022, the FAC sought a report within three weeks on the compliance status of conditions stipulated for forest clearances granted in the past for hydel projects in Arunachal. The Ministry has issued five reminders since.
