In a major boost to promoting afforestation and achieving “green” objectives of the country, the Centre on Thursday handed over Rs 47,436 crore of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds to various States.
Campa was constituted by the Supreme Court in July 2009 to ensure proper utilisation of funds received from project proponents for diversion of forest land for development activities like erection of dams, mining and construction of roads and industries. The amount collected under Campa differs from area to area. The apex court created Campa as the afforestation funds could not be utilised properly.
On Thursday, Odisha received the highest allocation (5,933.98 crore), followed by Chhattisgarh (Rs 5,791.70 crore) and Madhya Pradesh (Rs 5,196.69 crore). Kerala received the least amount of Rs 81.59 crore.
After a meeting with the State Forest Ministers and authorities here, Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar said, “It is expected that all States will utilise this fund towards forestry activities to achieve the objectives of the Nationally-Determined Contributions of increasing its forest and tree cover, which will create an additional carbon sink equivalent to 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2030.”
While asserting the State budget for forests shall remain unaffected and the fund being transferred would be in addition to State budget, the Minister reminded them the Campa funds are not meant for payment of salary, travelling allowances, etc.
Javadekar said, “Important activities on which the fund will be utilised are: compensatory afforestation, catchment area treatment, wildlife management, assisted natural regeneration, forest fire prevention and control, 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, etc.”
I appeal to the State Chief Ministers that this fund be used to rapidly increase the green cover, he said.
The 27 States which have received the funds are Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Assam, Bihar, Sikkim, Manipur, Goa, West Bengal, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
The Minister said that the Government has a technology to track whether these funds are being utilised properly.
“States should spend more in forest conservation as it is a future investment. We will keep a tab on these funds and we have the mechanism to track them.
“With new technology we will track the expenses. There will be proper monitoring and we will ask for a report from the States as well,” he said.
Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo and Union Environment Secretary CK Mishra were also present on the occasion.
The Minister said that an ad hoc Campa authority was established in 2006 on the directions of the Supreme Court for management of funds and in 2009 the apex court had permitted release of Rs 1,000 crore every year to States or Union Territories for compensatory afforestation and other activities.
In 2014, the apex court had permitted release of 10 per cent of total deposit of States in the fund from interest accrued due to which a large amount of funds remained unutilised and grew to around Rs 40,000 crore in 2016, the Minister said.
In 2018, Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Rules were put in place and in January 2019, with the approval of the Supreme Court, an amount of Rs 54,685 crore from ad hoc Campa has been brought under the control of the Centre, he said.