In a significant push to accelerate India's green cover restoration, the Union Government has issued a directive to all states and union territories to establish ready land banks for compensatory afforestation. This crucial step must be completed within 30 days of granting final clearance to development or industrial projects that require forest land diversion.
The Directive from the Top
The instruction came directly from Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba during a high-level review meeting on the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA). The meeting focused on streamlining the process of compensating for forest land diverted for non-forest purposes like mining, roads, and industrial projects. Gauba emphasized that the identification and preparation of land for afforestation should not be a subsequent hurdle but a precondition integrated into the clearance timeline itself.
This directive aims to tackle a long-standing bottleneck in India's environmental governance. Often, even after projects receive the final nod under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1986, the actual work of planting trees to compensate for the lost forest cover gets delayed due to the unavailability of suitable land. The new mandate seeks to ensure that the land is identified, acquired, and made plantation-ready concurrently with the project approval process.
Unlocking CAMPA Funds for Greener Growth
The review meeting also stressed the need for states to expedite the utilization of the massive corpus available under the CAMPA fund. Created on the orders of the Supreme Court, the CAMPA fund collects money from user agencies that divert forest land. These funds are then meant to be used for afforestation, forest management, and other conservation activities.
However, the utilization of these funds has often been slow. The Cabinet Secretary urged state authorities to clear pending bills of contractors and agencies involved in afforestation work promptly. This financial push is intended to remove operational roadblocks and ensure that the money collected for green purposes is deployed effectively and on the ground at a faster pace.
Implications for Development and Ecology
This policy shift marks a move towards a more synchronous model of development and environmental compensation. By mandating land bank creation within a strict 30-day window post-clearance, the government intends to:
- Eliminate delays in starting compensatory afforestation.
- Ensure that the "green credit" for a project is secured upfront.
- Improve the survival rate of planted saplings by ensuring dedicated, prepared land is available immediately.
- Boost the accountability of state forest departments and project proponents in fulfilling their environmental obligations.
The success of this directive will hinge on state-level cooperation and the availability of non-forest wasteland or degraded land that can be converted into forest. It represents a practical attempt to balance the imperatives of economic development with the constitutional duty to protect and improve the environment, as outlined in Article 48A. If implemented rigorously, it could transform the pace and quality of India's compensatory afforestation efforts, making project clearances truly conditional on immediate ecological redressal.
