Decentralisation seems to be the watchword for Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar’s 100 days of green governance. His Ministry has worked out a policy for transferring crores of rupees from the corpus of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) to the States by the end of this month after the apex court gives its final verdict in this regard.
In a Press- meet, Javadekar said on Tuesday that the Government has already submitted its policy to the Supreme Court, which will enable the States to get 95 per cent of the total Rs 35,000 crore corpus under the fund.
The fund will be used for the purpose of compensatory afforestation, forest management, protection, infrastructure development, wildlife protection and management, relocation of villages from the protected areas, managing human-wildlife conflicts, training and awareness generation, supply of wood saving devices and allied activities. National CAMPA will retain 5 per cent funds will be retained for monitoring and evaluation of schemes implemented in the States, setting up of institutes, societies, centre of excellence in the field of forest and wildlife, pilot schemes, standardisation of codes/guidelines etc for the sector. It has raised benchmarks for pollution norms by various industries, including cement, which happens to be one of the major air polluting sectors, among the 17 categories of identified highly polluting industries.
The States have been given more power in a number of clearance processes, including roads in border and Naxal-hit areas, linear projects etc. Norms for forest clearances have also eased giving more say to States where diversion involves is up to 40 hectares. Big cat conservation also finds a place in Javadekar’s 100 day achievement with the creation of Bor Tiger reserve in Maharashtra. The sanctuary is an important corridor between Tadoba-Andhari and Pench Tiger Reserves of the State.