T he basic objective of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 is to strike a balance between development and forest conservation. Wherever diversion of forest land is unavoidable for developmental purposes, approval is accorded to concerned state government subject to suitable safeguards for mitigating the adverse impact of diversion.
Compensatory afforestation is one of the most important conditions stipulated by the Central government while approving proposals for dereservation or diversion of forest land for non-forest uses. Compensatory afforestation is insisted over equivalent area of non-forest land. The objective behind this is to compensate the loss of forest area due to its diversion so that the net area under forest cover remains the same. Where non-forest lands are not available or non-forest land is available in less extent to the forest area being diverted, compensatory afforestation may be carried over degraded forest twice in extent to the area being diverted or to the difference between forest land being diverted and available non-forest land, as the case may be. The non-availability of non-forest land for compensatory afforestation, is however, accepted by the Central government only on the certificate from the chief secretary to the state/UT government to that effect.
As an exception to the above, compensatory afforestation can be undertaken to double the degraded forest land without insisting on a certificate from the chief secretary in the cases of :
I. For extraction of minor minerals from the river beds.
II. For proposals involving diversion of forest land upto 20 ha in hill
districts and also the districts having more than 50 per cent of
geographical area under forests.
III. For laying of transmission lines upto 220 KV.
IV. For diversion of linear or strip' plantation declared as protected forest
along the road/ rail/ canal sides for widening or expansion of road/ rail/
canal.
V. For Central Projects.
However, the performance of the state government in raising compensatory afforestation has not been very satisfactory. Till 1997, an area of about 27,4796 ha has been taken up for compensatory afforestation against a stipulation of 5,95,702 ha. (State-wise details are given below). The state governments have been requested to create land banks' of suitable non-forest lands and independent budget heads, solely for the purpose of compensatory afforestation.
Statement Showing State-Wise Target and Achievement and Realisation of Funds from User Agencies for Compensatory Afforestation
(Area in ha)
(Rs in lakhs)
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Name of State / UTs No. of Forest Comp. Comp. Percentage Funds to Funds Percentage QPR
cases Area Affo. Affo. (%) be realised Actually (%) Recd.
approved diverted stipulated done from UA realised
till for CA
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1. Andhra Pradesh 111 16694 15366 11592 75 3987 3593 90 12/96
2. Arunachal Pradesh 36 871 1482 811 55 357 318 89 6/97
3. Assam 84 1519 2044 578 28 356 310 87 6/97
4. Bihar 59 3221 1788 68 4 175 32 18
5. Goa 34 163 94 93 99 13 13 100
6. Gujarat 218 21277 31635 20054 63 4150 3720 90 3/97
7. Haryana 91 862 1167 954 83 159 131 82 12/96
8. Himachal Pradesh 170 3388 7433 4326 58 1016 817 80 6/97
9. Jammu & Kashmir 8 1286 1425 288 20 954 80 9
10. Karnataka 176 28169 14588 14917 103 1595 1549 97 3/97
11. Kerala 92 30263 57891 22747 39 105 49 47 12/96
12. Madhya Pradesh 461 217333 243476 92808 38 7045 6106 87
13. Maharashtra 694 31613 64251 58166 91 12666 10645 84 3/97
14. Manipur 5 245 - - - - - -
15. Meghalaya 28 177 254 270 106 3 1 100 3/97
16. Mizoram 2 55 3129 1709 55 254 149 59 6/97
17. Orissa 130 19007 18699 15196 81 2282 1963 86 3/97
18. Punjab 63 334 464 227 49 77 73 95 9/96
19. Rajasthan 101 8229 8453 3412 40 433 415 96 3/97
20. Sikkim 26 412 1459 1459 100 217 298 132 6/97
21. Tami Nadu 150 4731 941 816 87 103 96 93
22. Tripura 29 193 410 410 100 49 32 65 6/97
23. Uttar Pradesh 1148 24986 25882 20751 80 3490 3272 94 9/96
24. West Bengal 57 8929 1115 836 75 156 155 99 6/96
25. A&N Island 28 2143 1994 2046 103 11 10 91 6/96
26. D&N Haveli 11 141 262 262 100 44 - -
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Total 4012 426241 505702 274796 54% 39697 33837 85%
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