Ministry of Coal to Establish Sustainable Development Cell for Environmental Mitigation Measures

News:The Ministry of Coal has decided to establish a ‘Sustainable Development Cell’.

Facts:

About Sustainable development Cell:

• The Sustainable development cell aims to promote environmentally sustainable coal mining in the country and address environmental concerns during the decommissioning or closure of mines.
• The cell will advise and monitor the mitigation measures taken by the coal companies for maximising the utilisation of available resources in a sustainable way.
• It also aims to minimise the adverse impact of mining and mitigating it for further  ecosystem services and will act as nodal point at Ministry of Coal level in this matter. 
• Thus,the Cell envisages to address the environment mitigation measures in a systematic manner and to provide a better environment to people working and residing in the vicinity of Mines.

Functions of the Cell:The Cell will adopt a systemic approach, starting from collection of data, analysis of data, presentation of information planning based on information by executing the following tasks in a planned way:

• Land amelioration and afforestation
• Air quality, emission and noise management
• Mine water management
• Sustainable Overburden Management
• Sustainable Mine Tourism
• Planning and Monitoring
• Policy, Research, Education, and Dissemination.