Deforestation for Posco plant halted in Odisha

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday halted cutting of trees to acquire land for Posco’s Steel plant in Odisha, India’s biggest foreign direct investment (FDI).

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday halted cutting of trees to acquire land for Posco’s Steel plant in Odisha, India’s biggest foreign direct investment (FDI).

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The Odisha government has been acquiring land for the project despite the tribunal suspending the environment clearance and asking the environment ministry to reconsider the approval given.

The environment ministry told NGT that proceedings of the expert appraisal committee was pending and therefore, the environment clearance still remains suspended.

The applications told the tribunal the state government had been felling trees to acquire land for the project. The tribunal claimed that acquisition of the land without environment clearance was in violation of law.

NGT asked the state government to maintain a status quo in regard to cutting of trees as of today. The case will be heard again in July.

The tribunal in March 2012, suspended environment clearance and asked the ministry to review it saying that the ministry had failed to deal with major environmental concerns while speeding the clearance. The project has been hanging since 2006 due to environmental reasons.