New Delhi, Oct. 1 -- After a decision to fast-track environmental and forest clearance processes for critical minerals, all mining projects of atomic minerals and critical and strategic minerals notified in the first schedule (part B and D) of Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act will be exempt from public hearings, the union environment ministry has said. All of these projects, irrespective of the lease area, will be appraised at the central level, the ministry added. Some of these reserves of strategic minerals are located in border areas up north where communities are concerned about the impact on the sensitive ecology of the region. On September 8, the ministry issued an office memorandum (OM) referring to an earlier OM dated March 13 on out of turn consideration of mining projects of critical and strategic minerals. "The above OM was issued since the critical and strategic minerals are essential for the advancement of many sectors in the country, including high-tech electronics, telecommunications, transport and defence. They are also vital to meet the Net Zero commitment of India by 2070," the ministry said. The ministry of mines did not respond immediately to HT's query on how this would facilitate or expedite mining in strategic minerals. HT reported on July 16 that in a bid to fast-track forest and environmental clearances for critical or strategically important minerals, including rare earth ones, the union environment ministry is considering these proposals under a separate head in its Parivesh 2.0 portal. According to the environment ministry's September 8 OM, the defence ministry requested that the public hearing provision be bypassed for rare earth elements for use in defence sector. The OM said the defence ministry mentioned the use of rare earth elements "in manufacturing permanent magnets critical for defence equipment", and highlighted the scarcity of rare earth elements and the need for a steady and secure domestic supply. Further special dispensation has been provided to critical minerals sector for compensatory afforestation under Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Amendment Rules, 2025. Mining of critical and strategic minerals will get special dispensation for raising compensatory afforestation over degraded forest land, minimum double in extent. The slew of dispensations to the critical mining sector comes at a time when land is becoming a sensitive issue in the Himalayan region. "We are concerned about land allotments and politics of land. Our only concern is that whatever projects are coming up should consider the fragile ecology of Himalayan region. There should be local representation in determining these policies," Kargil Democratic Alliance founder-member Sajjad Kargili said in a press conference on Monday. People for Himalaya, a collective including civil society organisations from most parts of Himalayas demanded a strengthened disaster response system, including fair rehabilitation under the Disaster Management Act (2005), guaranteed central government support in times of extreme events, and safe resettlement policies for communities impacted by floods and those in unsafe and vulnerable zones. Since large areas of mountain states are under the legal category of forests, special provisions should be made in the Forest Conservation Act 1980 to allow rehabilitation, it demanded....