The government is close to announcing an Energy Emergency to remove procedural hurdles in the way of the development of hydropower and transmission lines, but the Energy and Forest ministries still do not see eye to eye about certain issues.Speaking at an interaction on Sunday organised by the Energy Development Council, officials of the two ministries expressed divergent views on whether the forest administration was a hurdle to hydropower development. They, however, agreed that a balance should be sought in the development of hydropower and conservation of forests. Energy Secretary Suman Sharma said that the Forest Ministry should not forbid the felling of trees to erect transmission lines because their impact on the environment would be temporary. “Once the power lines have been constructed, trees grow there once again,” he said. “It is very complicated to construct power lines on private land.”Hydropower developers have also identified forest clearance as being one of the major hindrances to the development of hydropower projects. Recently India’s Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam, the developer of the 900 MW Arun III Hydropower Project, complained that it was ordered to follow a parliamentary committee order under which the developer has to hand over an equivalent amount of private land surrounding the forest, according to Investment Board Nepal. The Natural Resources Committee under the previous parliament had also directed the government to create a legal provision barring the use of forest land for purposes other than forestry.