New Delhi: After a long hiatus, the ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) is back in action, taking strong measures to protect its stance on various issues pertaining to environment and forest clearances. It has decided to introduce a new categorisation declaring a portion of mineral bearing areas as ‘inviolate’ for undertaking any mining activity. This will make the reprieve to firms from the suspension of the go-no-go norm temporary. The ministry has finalised the modalities to launch the new categorisation that is once again expected to impact a series of existing and forthcoming projects of the power, steel and cement sectors. “We have defined the parameters for the inviolate areas based on the protected area status, crop diversity, biodiversity richness and the number of species there. We have developed the criteria for the inviolate areas as the group of ministers (GoM) on coal had asked us to,” said a senior ministry official. Though the official refused to give further details, sources said that the new categorisation would impact existing projects as several coal block allocations have been made in areas where mining would be barred under new categorisation. Based on a joint exercise by environment and the coal ministry in early 2010, the former decided to put 48% of the area under study (primarily in central and eastern India) out of bounds for mining or no-go areas. This categorisation attracted strong opposition from the industry which felt that the move would destroy their projects that use coal as input. "The new categorisation of inviolate areas may be as stringent but it would offer reprieve to the industry in the form of a policy on giving alternate coal blocks. This means that even if a company loses its allocation under the new norms, it could be offered alternate coal block"," said an official in the Planning Commission. In yet another show of its ability to take bold steps, the ministry has also rejected a proposal from the finance ministry to break the single forest advisory committee (FAC), that gives inputs to the ministry to accord forest clearance to industrial projects, into two or three committees so that the clearance process could be hastened. It has also rejected a proposal from the power ministry with regards to delegation of powers to regional offices for according forestry clearance for the sector. In fact, the finance ministry's recommendation of setting up several FACs has not gone well with the environment ministry with the latter being in the process of rejecting this idea. According to the MoEF, there is no need for more FACs as the single advisory body has no pending cases on forest clearances- a feat it has achieved for the first time. "We will tell the finance ministry that more FACs are not required because no project is pending with the committee. applications are pending at the level of the divisional forest officer (DFO). In fact, state governments don't even submit proper applications. What states do is not our responsibility but it is marked in our performance of delaying clearance"," the official added saying that more than 500 clearances are pending at the state level or with the project proponents for non submission of essential information