Himachal gets 1660.72 crore for afforestation activities :

The Union Government today released 1660.72 crore for the state of Himachal Pradesh for compulsory afforestation activities. The government has released Rs. Rs. 47,436 crores for afforestation for 27 states.

Funds will be utilised for the Compensatory Afforestation, Catchment Area Treatment, Wildlife Management, Assisted Natural Regeneration, Forest Fire Prevention and Control Operations, Soil and Moisture Conservation Works in the forest, Improvement of Wildlife Habitat, Management of Biological Diversity and Biological Resources, Research in Forestry and Monitoring of CAMPA works. The move is likely to give major boost towards promoting afforestation and achieving green objectives of the country.

The State budget for forests shall remain unaffected and the fund being transferred would be in addition to State Budget and it is expected that all States will utilize this fund towards forestry activities to achieve the objectives of the Nationally-Determined Contributions (NDCs) of increasing its forest & tree cover, which will create an additional carbon sink equivalent to 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by the year 2030”.

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 Act, under which funds were released was designed to compensate for the loss of tree cover in the country by creating a permanent institutional mechanism for effective utilization of the accumulated funds by the states to whom the funds actually belong to, for the purpose of afforestation.

To maximum utilisation of funds for compensatory afforestation, Compensatory Afforestation Fund and Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) was came into being after Hon’ble Supreme Court of India intervention.

CAMPA :

CAMPA Act or Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority Act is an Indian legislation that seeks to provide an appropriate institutional mechanism, both at the Centre and in each State and Union Territory, to ensure expeditious utilization in efficient and transparent manner of amounts released in lieu of forest land diverted for non-forest purpose which would mitigate impact of diversion of such forest land.

History :

In 2002, the Supreme Court of India observed that collected funds for afforestation were underutilized by the states and it ordered for centrally pooling of funds under Compensatory Afforestation Fund. The court had set up the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (National CAMPA) to manage the Fund. In 2009, states also had set up State CAMPAs that receive 10% of funds form National CAMPA to use for afforestation and forest conservation. However, in 2013, a CAG report identified that the funds continued to be underutilized. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill 2015 was introduced by the government in Lok Sabha on May 8, 2015 to regulate collected funds. The bill was sent for examination under a standing committee. It was passed by Rajya Sabha on 28 July 2016.

Compensatory Afforestation Fund :

This is money paid by developers who have razed forest land for their construction projects, and the idea is that such land destroyed needs to be made good by regenerating forest elsewhere on non-forest land

Purpose :

The legislation established the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF). The proposed legislation will also ensure expeditious utilization of accumulated unspent amounts available with the ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), which presently is of the order of Rs. 39,000 crore, and fresh accrual of compensatory levies and interest on accumulated unspent balance, which will be of the order of approximately Rs. 6,000 crore per annum, in an efficient and transparent manner.

Highlights :

• It seeks to establish the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India, and a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state.
• The payments into the funds include compensatory afforestation, NPV (Net Present Value), reforestation and any project specific payments. The National Fund will get 10% of funds collected and the remaining 90% will go to respective State Fund.
• The collected funds will be utilised for afforestation, regeneration of forest ecosystem, wild life protection and infrastructure development.
• The bill also seeks to establish National and State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authorities to manage the funds.
• The determination of NPV will be delegated to an expert committee constituted by the central government.