- The Union Ministry of Mines has requested an expert advisory committee of the Environment Ministry to exempt it from the Supreme Court-mandated fees that prospectors pay when they dig exploratory boreholes in forests.
- The Net Present Value (NPV), as it is called, is a monetary approximation of the value that is lost when a piece of forest land has been razed.
- This is on the basis of the services and ecological value and there are prescribed formulae for calculating this amount which
- depends on the location and nature of the forest and
- The type of industrial enterprise that will replace a particular parcel of forest.
- The Supreme Court mandates this must be paid by those who use forest land for non-forestry purposes and only limited exemptions are permitted.
- The Forest Advisory Committee, the Environment Ministry constituted expert committee that decides on whether forests can be diverted for projects, said that
- While it was not possible to do away with NPV it recommended that the Environment Ministry “may consider charging NPV on borehole basis instead of the present practice of charging 2 or 5% NPV of the total forest area in the lease area.”
- For prospecting on a site, large boreholes are dug to determine the existence, location and quantity of metal.
- In 2018, the Coal Ministry, the Mines Ministry and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had sought to be exempted from forest clearances for digging exploratory boreholes.
- The NPV came into being after a committee led by Professor Kanchan Gupta, of the Institute of Economic Growth, developed it based on a mandate from the Supreme Court.
