It was cleared without environment impact study and threaten rights of indigenous communities, say NGOs

A dozen rights, social and community-based organisations wrote on Saturday to Prime Minister Narendra Modi requesting him to annul the proposed diversion of a green patch near the “Amazon of Assam” for a coal mining project. The Standing Committee of the Environment Ministry’s National Board of Wildlife (NBWL) had on April 7 discussed a proposal for transferring 98.59 hectares from the Saleki Proposed Reserve Forest for a coal mining project by North-Easter Coal Field, a unit of the Coal India Limited (CIL).