Greening Initiatives of India’s Coal Sector

Source: The post is based on the article “Greening Initiatives of India’s Coal Sector” published in PIB on 30th August 2022.

What is the News?

The Coal Ministry has been taking various greening initiatives to support India’s targets against climate change.

What are the greening initiatives of India’s Coal Sector?

The coal industry is aiming to promote a sustainable model of development. To fulfill this aim, coal production will be coupled with the protection of the environment, conservation of natural resources, care for society, and measures to protect our forests and wildlife.

Initiatives taken

To achieve this, the Ministry of Coal has set an ambitious goal for coal companies to bring more than 2,400 hectares of the area in and around coalfields under green cover with the planting of more than 50 lakh saplings for the year 2022-23.

The identified areas include reclaimed mined-out areas of coal companies and areas outside of leasehold – amenable for plantation and made available by State Government agencies.

Significance: The above-stated greening initiatives of the coal sector will support India’s NDC commitment to creating an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030.