Section 6(6) in The Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2003
(6)(a)notwithstanding anything contained in these rules, proposal to obtain approval under the Act to undertake prospecting of minerals without felling of trees and construction of new road or path in mining blocks falling outside the protected areas, eco-sensitive zone of protected areas, identified tiger corridors and having no forest cover of more than forty percent crown density as per the latest India State of Forest Report published by the Forest Survey of India, shall also be submitted in a letter form along with a geo-referenced map indicating boundary of the prospecting block, location of each borehole site and roads or paths to be used for prospecting; and a certificate to the effect that the proposal meets the afore-mentioned requirements to the Nodal Officer;(b)the Nodal Officer, after having received the proposal under clause (a) and on being satisfied that the geo-referenced map and the certificate are in order, shall send the proposal to the Divisional Forest Officer within a period of ten days of the receipt of the proposal;(c)if the Nodal Officer, finds that the geo-referenced map or the certificate are not in order, he shall return the proposal to the User Agency within a period of ten days and the said period taken by the Nodal Officer and the time taken by the User Agency to re-submit the proposal shall not be counted for any future reference;(d)the Divisional Forest Officer shall authenticate the geo-referenced map and certificate submitted by the User Agency and forward the same directly to the Nodal officer, within a period of thirty days of receipt of the geo-referenced map and the certificate;(e)the proposal received by the Nodal Officer under clause (d) shall be further processed in the manner and within the period as provided in clause (i) to clause (m) of sub-rule (3) and sub-rule (4) of rule 6 and rule 7 of these rules.]
