India, Jan. 13 -- Once these lands are accepted for compensatory afforestation, they will be notified and brought under control of state forest department

Land reclaimed from exhausted Coal India Ltd (CIL) mines will be used for compensatory afforestation (CA), the Union ministries for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and for Coal (MoC) have decided, a source in the government said.

The decision to use restored and biologically reclaimed, mined-out, non-forest land was taken in a meeting of the two ministries on September 3, 2019.

"The proposal to use reclaimed land for CA came from the MoC. The coal mines, in addition to the forest land, also have non-forest land, which, after reclamation, stays unused. If it can be us...