Environment minister Jayanthi Natar-ajan can?t easily disown the legacy of her predecessor, it seems. Her ministry has hardened its stand on the demand for release of coal blocks for mining in thickly forested areas in Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, a move that could adversely impact at least three dozen steel, power and cement projects. Natarajan has taken the safer option of referring the question of releasing coal blocks from these strictly no-go areas to the Cabinet.

Her predecessor Jairam Ramesh too had decided to refer the matter to the Cabinet just before his exit, even as he relented in the case of a few other blocks which had obtained stage-1 forest clearance.

Natarajan had earlier said that there should be single-window clearance for all projects as development and environment would need to go hand in hand. She has now come around to the view that in the case of projects which Ramesh did not recommend for clearance, the Cabinet would take the final call, not the ministry.

Projects by Adani, Essar, Prakash Industries, Hindustan Zinc, Ultratech and the Chhattisgarh ultra mega power project (UMPP) will be impacted by the ministry?s decision. If Cabinet approval does not come though, these companies will have to to rework their project plans or relocate.

According to sources, the ministry has also decided against further dilution of the ?go? and ?no-go? segregation of coal blocks and to seek a group of ministers? (GoM) endorsement for a complete ban on mining in thickly forested areas in and around Hasdeo Arand coalfields and a few blocks in Jharkhand.

Sources in the ministry said while they didn\’t see how mining could be done in these areas, the Cabinet could take a final call. A GoM headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is currently looking into the issue and its next meeting is slated for later this week. ?The Cabinet can\’t decide the fate of these projects in one meeting alone. It will take more time to reach a final decision. The course of action will be decided in the next meeting of the GoM, which will meet on July 28,? said a senior ministry official, indicating that the road ahead for companies who have projects in the strictly no-go areas could be bumpy.

Incidentally, in the last GoM meeting, Ramesh had made a presentation that offered to reduce the no-go zone from 71% of the total coal-bearing area to 53%. He had also said that no-go tag will be removed for all projects which had been given a stage-I forest clearance. Fertiliser major Iffco\’s Chhattisgarh project will benefit from this.

In fact, Ramesh had already started recommending clearances for such projects to the GoM. In the case of Mahan block in Singrauli coalfield in Madhya Pradesh, even the forest advisory committee\’s (FAC) adverse recommendation was overruled by the minister. These projects will not be impacted by the ministry\’s move to refer a few cases to the Cabinet. Other approves projects include power plants by Hindalco (650 MW) and Essar (1,200 MW). These projects will be allocated alternative coal blocks that are not in the no-go zone. Similarly, he had granted a stage-I forest clearance to three blocks ? Tara, Parsa East and Kante Basan ? in the densely forested Hasdeo Arand regions saying these were ?on the fringes? and not actually within the biodiversity-rich region. However, Ramesh had flatly refused clearance for the Chhattisgarh UMPP in Sarguja as it is in the middle of the Hasdeo-Arand coalfield in dense forest. Ramesh had also cleared the UMPP in Odisha after redrawing the boundaries of the project excluding thickly forested areas.

? There will be no more redrawing of boundaries for the rest of the no-go projects and it is up to the Cabinet now,? the ministry official said.