In order to promote environmentally sustainable coal mining and to address environmental concerns during closure of mines in the country, the Ministry of Coal has decided to come up with a ‘Sustainable Development Cell’ (SDC). This is a significance move in view of the new private entities now going to form a significant part of the future, a set of guidelines for proper rehabilitation of mines need to be evolved in tune with global best practices.

SDC will advise, mentor, plan and monitor the mitigation measures taken by the coal companies for maximising the utilisation of available resources in a sustainable way,  minimising the adverse impact of mining and mitigating it for further  ecosystem services and will act as nodal point at Ministry of Coal level in this matter.

The cell will also formulate the future policy framework for the environmental mitigation measures including the mine closure fund. The SDC will adopt a systemic approach,  starting from collection of data, analysis of data, presentation of information, planning based on information; by domain experts, adoption of best practices, consultations, innovative thinking, site-specific approaches, knowledge sharing and dissemination and finally end with an aim to ease the lives of people and communities in general.