Centre releases Rs. 47,436 crores for afforestation in 27 states
The Union Government today released 1660.72 crore for the state of Himachal Pradesh for compulsory afforestation activities. The government has released Rs. Rs. 47,436 crores for afforestation for 27 states.
Funds will be utilised for the Compensatory Afforestation, Catchment Area Treatment, Wildlife Management, Assisted Natural Regeneration, Forest Fire Prevention and Control Operations, 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. The move is likely to give major boost towards promoting afforestation and achieving green objectives of the country.
Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar stated “The State budget for forests shall remain unaffected and the fund being transferred would be in addition to State Budget and it is expected that all States will utilize this fund towards forestry activities to achieve the objectives of the Nationally-Determined Contributions (NDCs) of increasing its forest & tree cover, which will create an additional carbon sink equivalent to 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by the year 2030”.
The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 Act, under which funds were released was designed to compensate for the loss of tree cover in the country by creating a permanent institutional mechanism for effective utilization of the accumulated funds by the states to whom the funds actually belong to, for the purpose of afforestation.
To maximum utilisation of funds for compensatory afforestation, Compensatory Afforestation Fund and Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) was came into being after Hon’ble Supreme Court of India intervention.
