Haryana road projects may get retrospective green nods

The Union environment ministry will consider granting retrospective forest clearance approvals to hundreds of approach roads in Haryana that involved the clearance of trees and so-called strip plantations and which the state government cleared despite these not meeting the requisite criteria.

In a letter written in early February, the ministry has asked the Haryana government to submit details of 790 projects involving diversion of strip forest land for approach roads to provide access to roadside amenities such as retail stores, petrol pumps, and wedding halls.

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The ministry’s letter came after it found several lapses in Haryana’s clearances for these that were based on a clause for general approval in the guidelines for forest clearances issued by the Centre in 2019. But this clause was about approvals only till December 31, 2019, after which the Union environment ministry’s approval was mandatory for such projects — a fact that was ignored by Haryana.

The Union environment ministry’s guidelines, published in March 2019, had a provision to accord general approval under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of not more than 0.1 hectare of forest land (10763.9 sq feet) in each case to government departments/private establishments. This general approval was applicable for approach/access passing through the strip plantations along so-called linear projects (such as highways). But the general approval was valid only till December 31, 2019. The general approval was also based on certain conditions to be met by the project proponents, including the size ceiling of 0.1 ha in each case and the criticality of the project.

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But Haryana continued to grant hundreds of general approvals beyond 2019, in many cases covering strip forest area of more than 0.1 ha. Now, all of these projects will be considered for grant of ex-post facto clearances (clearances to be granted in retrospect), according to the letter sent by the environment ministry to the Haryana government on February 9. Environmentalists said while the need for approach roads is legitimate, the large number of cases involved point to rampant bypassing of environmental regulation in a state which has traditionally been a laggard in environmental protection. Haryana has a forest cover of only 3.63%, according to the Forest Survey of India.

The ministry’s letter, a copy of which HT has seen, said: “Government of Haryana vide letter dated June 7, 2022 submitted the details of 790 proposals wherein stage 1/stage II approvals have been accorded by the state government to roadside amenities and other projects under provisions of General Approval given in chapter 4 of the handbook of guidelines, beyond 2019. … Many of the proposals involve an area of more than 0.1 ha which is not covered…in the guidelines.” The letter was available on the environment ministry’s Parivesh website on Monday but was taken down on Tuesday.

On March 22, 2021, the ministry further said that in cases of general approval where the state government granted stage 1 clearance before December 31, 2019, the projects can be considered for stage II clearance. The Haryana government has been asked to submit all 790 proposals to the regional office of the ministry which will assess whether the state can grant final clearance to legitimate projects; the rest will be assessed by the ministry for ex post facto clearances on a case-by-case basis, the letter said.

The letter also said that the Haryana government has constituted a committee under KC Meena, additional principal chief conservator of forests, to assess the lapses in the proposals cleared.

“Discrepancies were noted in many projects involving the area covered and nature of projects. They are all being reassessed now. The final clearance should have been granted by the Union ministry beyond 2019 but clearances continued to be granted at the state level,” said a senior official of Haryana forest department who declined to be named.

“The projects cleared are located in various parts of the state and not in the Aravalli districts alone. Strip plantation forests have been impacted,” he added.

Union environment ministry officials did not respond to HT’s questionnaire.

“In any case, Haryana has the lowest area under forest cover in the country. There are projects next to the road and involve clearing of strip plantations. One can understand few projects here and there, but 790 have come up since 2019. It’s a very big number. There are several legal aspects that need to be probed. It’s still not clear if these clearances are in the form of clusters. A very different picture can emerge if the land cleared is adjacent. It needs to be probed how so much land diversion has taken place. Post facto clearances shouldn’t be allowed just because the state is asking for it,” said Ritwick Dutta an environmental lawyer.

“Such decisions run the risk of institutionalising the practice of post facto regulatory fixes. It also gives the impression that fragmented approvals can be sought without understanding the overall in impact of overall roadside development activities despite some of them being contiguous in nature,” said Kanchi Kohli, legal researcher, Centre for Policy Research.