Uttarakhand to Start Plantation Drive in Other States to Clear Compensatory Afforestation Backlog

The Uttarakhand Forest Department will soon start a plantation drive in Uttar Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region and parts of Rajasthan. This has been decided by the forest department in order to clear the backlog for compensatory afforestation for next two years.

Highlights

•  Compensatory afforestation is done in the backdrop of transfer of forest land for non-forestry purposes.
• Non-forestry purposes include the development of dams, mining and the construction of industries or roads.
• Under the compensatory plantation, 1100 plants have to be  planted spreading over an area of one hectare.
• As per a report of the Uttarakhand Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) steering committee, the state government has done afforestation on the 24,908 hectare land as of now.
• The target stands as plantation drive across 33,944 hectare.

Challenges

Uttarakhand is facing a shortage of suitable land for the plantation drive for remaining 5,535 hectares.

Why other states have been chosen?

To mitigate the challenge of shortage of land, the Uttarakhand CAMPA steering committee put forward the proposal for a plantation drive in other states. However, for implementing the proposal,  the Uttarakhand government will require bring about a report on availability or unavailability of the land within the state. The District authorities of Uttarakhand have also been asked to create land bank for compensatory afforestation.

About CAMPA

The National Compensatory Afforestation Fund and  the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) was established in 2001 after an order by Supreme court. Later, in 2006, adhoc CAMPA was established to  manage the Compensatory afforestation fund.

CAMPA Act

The CAMPA act was initiated in order to compensate the loss of forest area’. The act also maintains the sustainability of the forests. The act provides for the establishment of a National Compensatory Afforestation Fund which is funded under the Public Account of India and a State Compensatory Afforestation Fund which is funded under the Public Account of each state. Both of these funds receive payments for compensatory afforestation, net present value of forest and other project specific payments. The National Fund receives 10% of these funds while the State Funds receives  90% of the fund.