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The Union Ministry of Environment and Forest and Climate Change has reduced the mandatory requirement of greenbelt or green cover for new industrial estates, parks and individual industries under environmental clearance conditions.
The Ministry had earlier standardised the conditions for the projects covered in the schedule of the Environment Impact Assessment notification, 2006 in which the minimum 33% separate green belt was compulsory for development projects, including industrial estates.
An office memorandum issued on October 29 revised the greenbelt norms in new greenfield industrial projects. According to it, a minimum of 10% of the area of the industrial estates shall be designated as common green area with dense plantation (2,500 trees per hectare) to be developed by the owner of the industrial estate.
“This area could be developed by the project proponent either at one location or be earmarked at different locations within the premises in such a manner that it is clearly demarcated and adds up to 10% of the area of the industrial estate,” the Ministry said.
Additionally, individual member industries in an industrial estate have to meet the minimum green belt requirement of 15% for red category industries and 10% for orange category industries within their premises. The Ministry asked the industries to locate the greenbelt as close as possible to the pollution source.
If an individual unit sets up a project outside an industrial estate, it must ensure 25% green cover if it falls under the red category, 20% for orange and 10% for green.
Industrial sectors with a pollution index score of 60 and above are categorised as red, and industries are classified orange if the scores are between 41 and 59.
In office memoranda of 2018 and 2019, the Ministry had stipulated 33% separate green belt requirement for most sectors. In 2019, 40% green belt criteria were introduced for potential red and orange category industries located in Critically Polluted Areas and Severely Polluted Areas. Subsequently, in 2020, 33% mandatory green cover requirement was retained in industrial estates. Parks, complexes, export processing zones and special economic zones
The office memorandum said that in order to rationalise the requirements and strike a balance between the requirement of land for the projects and activities and the environmental needs, a committee was constituted. It submitted a report to the Ministry for revising the criteria for developing a greenbelt. The report was referred to the Expert Advisory Committee for examination and after due deliberation, the committee recommended the revised greenbelt.
Environmentalists have raised objections to such revision. “The reduction in greenbelt requirement was aimed at favouring corporate sector. The order clearly shows that green norms are guided under pressure from industries,” said Prafulla Samantara, environmentalist and a Goldman environmental prize winner.
Published – October 31, 2025 03:20 am IST
