NGT grants 'last opportunity' to Env min to check illegal tree felling for charcoal

The National Green Tribunal has rapped the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) for not amending the notification on "Wood-Based Industries (Establishment and Regulation) Guidelines, 2016" to check illegal tree felling for charcoal making.

The green panel granted "the last opportunity" for implementing the order dated August 13, 2018, till February 28, 2019, with a warning that coercive measures, including prosecution of the officer responsible, may have to be taken for non-compliance.

A bench headed by NGT Chairperson Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel said that five months have passed but the needful has not been done and the lawyer for the ministry is unable to give any specific date by which the order of the tribunal will be complied with.

"An affidavit has been filed on December 13, 2018, by Rohit Tiwari, Deputy Inspector General of Forests, MoEF to the effect that the Ministry was in the process of framing guidelines which will take six months. No justification has been given.

"We do not appreciate the stand in the affidavit that it will take six months to comply with the order, which was to be complied with within four weeks from December 13, 2018, having regard to the urgency of the matter. The stand taken by the MoEF cannot be held to be a responsible stand," the bench, also comprising Justice S P Wangdi, said.

It said the compliance of the order will be the responsibility of the officer "specified by the Secretary of MoEF&CC, under intimation of this tribunal". "Affidavit of compliance be filed before the next hearing by e-mail," the bench said while posting the matter for hearing on March 13.

Earlier, the tribunal had directed the MoEF to conduct a study to ascertain whether the use of charcoal as fuel in industries had any adverse impact on the environment. It had asked the ministry to examine the process involved in the production of charcoal and submit a report to the tribunal. The Indian Institute of Sustainable Development had filed a plea alleging that trees were being indiscriminately cut for converting them into charcoal.

The NGO had also sought a ban on the use of charcoal as fuel or raw material in industries across the country. Noting that the indiscriminate and illegal felling of trees would lead to environmental disaster, the NGT had earlier imposed a ban on cutting of trees without clearance from appropriate authorities.

"There shall be an order of injunction against companies/authorities from illegally cutting trees in the forest areas in the whole of the country to be used for charcoal without obtaining environmental/forest clearance or permission from appropriate authorities," the bench had said.