In yet another step to speed up green clearances, involving forest diversion proposals for infrastructure projects, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has asked the States to set up a land bank of degraded, non-degraded and non-forest land so that projects are not held up due to search for non-forest land for compensatory afforestation.
The Forest Survey of India has been asked to prepare a forest cover map, type, landscape and other parameters.
According to sources, many projects get unnecessarily stalled as the States are not able to find non-forest land to carry out compensatory afforestation, which is a pre-condition for granting forest clearance to any infrastructure project that requires deforestation.
According to norms, the project proponents are required to deposit money with the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) for plantation and transferring forest land for non-forest purposes. The money is then allotted to state forest departments to carry out compensatory afforestation.
The Ministry is also working on GIS-based decision support system to facilitate informed, speedy and transparent decision on forest clearance applications. The information prepared by Forest Survey of India related to any forest block can be found using the decision support system and this will expedite the decision-making process as it will remove the time consumed in field surveys,” the official added.
According to data, about 21 per cent of the country’s geographical area is under forest cover, and every year nearly 35,000 hectares of forest land are diverted for non-forest purpose for construction of dams, mining, roads and other infrastructure projects.
In the process, nearly 11,89,294 hectares of forest land have been converted for use in non-forestry purposes after giving approvals to 23,511 proposals since 1980. Of these, maximum approvals have been given to Madhya Pradesh followed by Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.