Section 6(5) in The Forest (Conservation) Rules, 2003
(5)[ (a) notwithstanding anything contained in these rules, the 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 ten percent crown density as per the latest India State of Forest Report published by the Forest Survey of India, shall be submitted by the User Agency in a letter form along with a geo-referenced map indicating boundary of the prospecting block, location of each bore-hole 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 within a period of ten days to the User Agency and the said period taken by the Nodal Officer and the time taken by the User Agency to re-submit the geo-referenced map and the certificate 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 State Government or Union territory Administration, as the case may be, or an officer not below the rank of the Nodal Officer, authorized by the State Government or Union territory Administration, as the case may be, to finally dispose of such proposals, within thirty days of its receipt;(e)the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, or the officer not below the rank of the Nodal Officer, duly authorized by the State Government or the Union territory Administration, as the case may be, to finally dispose of such proposals, after examination of the geo-referenced map and certificate and after such further enquiry as it may consider necessary, grant permission for prospecting of minerals subject to fulfillment of stipulated conditions, or reject the same within twenty-five days of receipt of the proposal from the Divisional Forest Officer and communicate the same to the concerned Divisional Forest Officer and the User Agency, within next five days;
