The number of green clearances granted by the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) has seen a significant decline over the last three years, with most of the brunt being borne by the non-coal mining projects.

Development projects covering irrigation, power, mining and infrastructure have been hit as it has become more difficult to get the environmental nods.

While 197 non-coal mining projects received environmental clearance in 2008, the number declined to 152 in 2009 (when Jairam Ramesh took charge of MoEF in May) and halved to 73 in 2010.

The next big hit was taken by infrastructure projects where the number of environmental clearances fell 46%, from 79 in 2008 to 42 in 2010.

Overall, there are 286 projects representing almost every state awaiting environmental clearance. Usually, decisions on the projects are taken within 105 days of the receipt of complete information, as provided for in the Environment Impact Assessment Notification, 2006. Of these, 60 days are for appraisal by the ministry’s EAC and 45 days for processing and communicating the decision thereon.

The ministry says ?many projects are perceived to be pending for environmental clearance but the reason is non-submission of complete information by the project proponents in the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report and the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) required for the projects submitted?.

In fact, the RBI also blamed Ramesh?s ?environment sensitive policies? to be driving foreign direct investments (FDI) away from the country. The RBI recorded an ?almost 36%? dip in FDI inflows during the first half of the current fiscal (April-September 2010) and pointed out that inward investments during this period stood at only about $12.6 billion, against $19.8 billion witnessed during the same period last fiscal.

Projects like JK Paper’s plan to expand and modernise its pulp and paper mill in Rayagada, NHAI’s plan to widen NH-8 from Ahmedabad to Vadodara from 4 lanes to 6 lanes, Asahi Fibres’ 6.9-mw gas-based captive power plant at Valsad in Gujarat and Adani Power Rajasthan’s 1320-mw (2×660 mw) project at Kawai in Baran are among awaiting the mandatory green clearance.

However, the MoEF is now trying to speed up the pace of granting clearances. ?The ministry is now getting a lot of application from setting up power plants in coastal areas which need intake and outfall for cooling water. Infrastructure is usually related to highway projects and there was a time when there was a build up, but now things are moving fast,? said an official of the EAC.