Ground realities of compensatory afforestation

 The Forest (Conservation) Amendment Bill, 2023, currently considered by the Joint Parliamentary Committee, emphasizes the need to fast track strategic and security-related projects of national importance so as to ensure the development of vital security infrastructures, especially along the international border areas such as the Line of Actual Control, Line of Control, and Left Wing Extremism-affected areas. The bill, if passed by the parliament, will have direct ramifications in the northeast region, which has 98% international borders, as the strategic projects to be located in the region will lead to the diversion of vast tracts of forests rich in unique biodiversity. While compensatory afforestation can never make up for the loss of the original forest, afforestation taken up to compensate for the loss is critical to maintaining the forest cover for ecological balance. The pace of growth and development activities being much faster than the pace of natural growth of trees planted under compensatory afforestation, maintaining the ideal forest cover requires much more focused attention to the judicious utilisation of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund by the states. The latest review of CAMPA fund utilisation revealed that the data on Compensatory Afforestation (CA) required to be carried out against each project in respect of which forest land was diverted since 1980 has not been reconciled in many States. The cost of CA was realised by the respective State Governments before the year 2006 from 1980, and the States were responsible for raising the CA before the Ad-hoc CAMPA was set up at the Central Government. Official data shows that the National Authority has reconciled data on receipt of compensatory levies since 2018-19 up to 2021-22, and the reconciliation of compensatory levies from May 2006 up to 2018-19 has also been mostly reconciled, and State shares have been transferred to concerned States. Reconciling data since 1980 in all states is critical to getting a comprehensive picture of compensatory afforestation in the entire country since 1980. A report of the Comptroller and Auditor General reveals that between 1980 and May 2004, about 9.21 lakh hectares of forest land had been diverted for non-forestry uses, and forest land aggregating up to 1.14 lakh hectares had been diverted after the formation of Ad-hoc CAMPA until March 2012. The CAMPA was established under the directive of the Supreme Court in 2009 to remove some discrepancies in compensatory afforestation. The SC observed poor utilisation of funds deposited for compensatory afforestation and that some states had not realised the money for compensatory afforestation from user agencies. The funds under CAMPA are to be utilised primarily for undertaking regeneration to compensate for the loss of forest and create more forest, for improvement in the quality of forests, and for wildlife habitat, including augmentation of fodder and water for wildlife. As a principle, at least 80 percent of the CAMPA funds should be utilised for the purpose of forest regeneration and improvement in the quality of forests, and a maximum of 20% should only be used for essential infrastructure support and capacity building that has a direct impact on the extension and improvement of forest cover and wildlife habitat, as the national authority states in the minutes of the meeting. Transparency in CAMPA fund utilisation is important not just for ensuring judicious utilisation of available funds but also for reconciling the actual data as to how many trees have been planted as part of compensatory afforestation and how many of those have actually survived. Poor utilisation of CAMPA funds by states presents a worrying situation for compensating for the loss of forest diverted for non-forest use in the country. According to information furnished by the Central Government on the floor of the parliament, Assam, for instance, could utilise only Rs 32 crore, while the Central Government transferred Rs 560 crore to the state CAMPA authorities in that financial year. The amount in 2022–23 was Rs 23 crore against a transfer of Rs 148 crore. The proposed bill seeks to allow user agencies or developers to raise plantations on land to which the Forest Act does not apply and swap such land for compensatory afforestation. When projects are fast-tracked in the northeast region in the name of strategic requirements, this provision in the bill may allow the user agency to swap plantations raised by them elsewhere to meet the requirement of compensatory afforestation. Such provision is problematic and will have a cascading impact on the fragile ecology of the region, and vast tracts of unique forest land may be lost and never replaced with quality afforestation. The government and the JPC should hold a wider consultation before giving the go-ahead to the bill with this provision to avoid creating undesirable and irreversible consequences. Conservation of unique forest ecosystems has become more important to achieve the country’s goals and must not be allowed to be lost in the name of development.