Environment Ministry Approves Coal Mining Expansion Amid Ongoing Court Challenges

Environment Ministry Clears Expansion of Magadh Opencast Coal Mine Amid 11 Pending Court Cases

The expert appraisal committee (EAC) of the Environment Ministry has cleared the expansion of the Magadh opencast coal mine in Jharkhand's Chatra and Latehar districts, despite 11 pending court cases regarding the project over alleged encroachment of forest land. The mine is operated by Central Coalfields Limited, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited.

The project involves increasing the production capacity from 20 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) to 24 MTPA, with the mining lease area reduced from 1,769 ha to 1,598.71 ha. The mine expansion seeks environment clearance (EC) for the increased production capacity. The project involves 628.09 ha of forest land, with Stage-II forest clearance given to 276.04 ha, but the remaining 352.05 ha is yet to get the final nod for diversion.

The EAC recommended that the project proponent place closely spaced bamboo pillars/fencing to prevent any mining or allied activities within the forest land. It also recommended that no mining activities should be carried out in the 352.05 ha area without obtaining Stage-II forest clearance for the land.

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The 11 pending court cases have been filed between 2019 and 2025, under the Indian Forest Act, 1927 and the Indian Forest (Bihar Amendment) Act, 1989. The cases involve alleged encroachment of forest land, with one case involving around 10 ha of forest land on both sides of the railway line at the Magadh coal block siding, and another case involving about 25 ha of forest land in Chatra's Kundi village.

Comparison of Production Capacity

During the EAC meeting, the project proponent claimed that the alleged violations primarily occurred due to discrepancies between the cadastral survey (CS) and revisional survey (RS) records. The project proponent also claimed that there was a lack of demarcation between non-forest land and forest land at the spots where the alleged violations happened.

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However, Debadityo Sinha, senior resident fellow and lead of the climate and ecosystems team at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, has raised concerns about the Environment Ministry's practice of granting environment clearances in cases where court proceedings are pending. He claimed that this sets a bad precedent and goes against the mandate of the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification, 2006.