India’s National Green Tribunal halts environmental clearances for Babarkot limestone mining

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) in India has stopped environmental clearances for two limestone mining sites in Babarkat village, Jafrabad, Amreli. The step results in a significant delay for UltraTech Cement Ltd, which is part of the Aditya Birla Group.
 
The special bench of NGT ruled that the project fell under category A and was beyond the purview of the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) to award environment clearances.The said mines dropped under cluster mining and are the extensions to the current mining project, which should have been reported by the country’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. They hold the project to be category 'A' as the mining area is integral and over 50ha. It is observed that the total area is a cluster and therefore, according to the spirit of  the Environment Impact Assessment the impact of the entire activity needs to be studied integrally, and that such projects are to be category A.