NEW DELHI — The Indian Ministry of Home Affairs has said it prevented a Greenpeace India activist from boarding a flight to Britain in January, where she was scheduled to brief members of Parliament on the effect of mining on indigenous communities in central India, because her visit was “prejudicial to the national interest” and would hurt India’s image abroad.

Priya Pillai, an activist who had been fighting coal mining in the Mahan forest, was stopped by immigration control at the airport in New Delhi on Jan. 11 and barred from traveling. A government affidavit in the case, which was made available to The New York Times on Saturday, said Ms. Pillai’s name appeared on a no-fly list generated from a secret database of the Intelligence Bureau. Shortly thereafter, she filed a court petition against the Ministry of Home Affairs, asking for her right to travel to Britain to be reinstated, as well as for monetary compensation for mental trauma and harassment.

The case has raised alarm among some nongovernmental organizations, which say the government of the new prime minister, Narendra Modi, is continuing the previous government’s policy of singling out NGOs that it believes are hurting the country’s potential for economic growth. Greenpeace India said the Pillai case and other government actions made social welfare groups feel scrutinized.

“If you ask me, it’s a possible pincer strategy,” Samit Aich, the executive director of Greenpeace India, said in an interview after Ms. Pillai was barred from flying. “Greenpeace India is at the forefront of being targeted, but most certainly there is a sense that for civil society, this is a message.”