Explainer: What are CAMPA Funds?
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
January 8, 2020
Recently, the central government released more than ₹ 47000 crores CAMPA funds to the States. But what are CAMPA funds? Here is an explainer.
In India, Forest land can be diverted for non-forest purposes such as construction of dams, mining and other developmental activities only if the government permits. Since this diversion of forest land results in loss of biodiversity which in turn affects wildlife as well as geographical parameters such as climate and terrain, compensatory afforestation is also mandated in the law. In other words, to compensate for the losses incurred, the government made compensatory afforestation mandatory. This story takes a look at the measures taken by the government to ensure the same and the status of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds.
Compensatory afforestation is mandatory in case of
diversion of Forest Land
Whenever forestland is diverted for non-forest purposes, it is mandatory under the Forest
(Conservation) Act, 1980 that anequivalent area of non-forest land has to be taken up for compensatoryafforestation. In addition to this, funds for raising the forest are also to beimposed on whomsoever is undertaking the diversion. The land chosen forafforestation, if viable, must be in close proximity of reserved or protected forestfor ease of management by forest department.
An undertaking to pay for CA activities is also mandatory
for clearance
At the time ofsubmission of project proposal to apply for forest clearance,the applicant must attach an undertaking stating that they will bear the costof compensatory afforestation as per existing rules & scheme.
The forestdepartment must also provide details regarding the area identified forafforestation. It is only after this, that the proposal goes to higherauthorities for recommendations and approval.
SC in 2002 directed that CA fund be created
In
2002, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered thata Compensatory Afforestation Fund had to be created in which all thecontributions towards compensatory afforestation and net present value of landhad to be deposited. This order was made in the case of TN
Godhavarman Vs Union of India where the SC observed that a lot of funds received for compensatoryafforestation remained unutilised with the states.
CAMPA was constituted in 2004 by MoEF to manage CAF
In April 2004, Ministry
of Environment and Forests constitutedCompensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) tooverlook and manage the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) as directed bythe SC. The authority was termed as the ‘custodian’ of the fund. Further in2009, the government ordered that State
CAMPAs had to be set up to boostcompensatory afforestation at state level and also manage Green India Fund.
CAG report showed that utilisation of fund under CAMPA
was very poor
Despite all theseefforts, CAG
report in 2013 revealed that the CAMPA fundsremained unutilised. The report stated that between 2006 and 2012, CAF with adhoc CAMPA grew from ₹1,200 crores to ₹23,607 crores.
CAF Act, 2016 came into force from 2018 after
formulation of CAF rules
Compensatory
Afforestation Fund Act, 2016 came into force from 30
September 2018. The Act established aNational Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India andState Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state.The payments made for compensatory afforestation, net present value and othersrelated to the project will be deposited in the fund. The State Funds willreceive 90% of the payments while National Fund will receive remaining 10%.These funds will be regulated by State and National CAMPA. The Compensatory
Afforestation Fund Rules were notified inAugust 2018. All states except
Nagaland have set up state CAMPAs followingthis notification, as of November 2019.
States with forest cover more than 75% need not take
up CA activities in their state
In April 2019, the Ministry
of Environment notified that states whichhave a forest land of more than 75% of their geographical area need not providenon-forest land for compensatory afforestation. Instead, land can be taken upin states with lesser forest cover. Further, it was also notified that theminimum area of compensatory land should be five hectares if the land is notcontiguous to a forest.
As per 2019
State of Forest India report,states with more than 75% forest cover include the North Eastern states ofArunachal Pradesh (79%), Manipur (75%), Meghalaya (76%), Mizoram (85%),Nagaland (75%), and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (81%) and Lakshadweep (90%). Interms of Recorded Forest Area, Manipur, Sikkim and Andaman and Nicobar Islandshave more than 75% area categorised as forests.
23.3% of India’s geographical land is ‘Recorded Forest
Area’
According to the ‘State
of Forest Report 2019’, India has a totalRecorded Forest Area of 7.67 lakh square kilometres. This is about 23.3% ofIndia’s geographical land. Recorded forest area refers to those areas whichhave been classified as forests (reserved and protected) by the government asper Indian Forest Act, 1927. India’s forest cover is 7.12 lakh squarekilometres and covers 21.7% of India’s geographical area. This includes alllands having area more than one hectare and tree canopy density of 10%irrespective of classification and can include both forest and privateplantations. Between 2015 and 2018, a total of 20,314
hectares of forest land was diverted.
More
than ₹ 30000 crore received in CAMPA fund
Annually, theamount released by ad
hoc CAMPA towards compensatory afforestation, beforethe rules came into force is given in the chart below.
The amountreleased has increased from ₹1575.7 crores in 2014-15 to ₹3,523.6 crores in 2018-19, by 123%. It was also observed that between 2006 and 2017, about ₹ 38,029.5 crores were received invarious CAMPA Funds of which only ₹ 12,241 crores were released to Stateand UT Funds as of January 2018.
MoEF released over ₹ 47000 crores to states
in 2019
After the 2018notification rules, ₹54,685 crores were brought to the control of central government fund from thead hoc CAMPA. Of this, MoEF handed over ₹ 47,436crore rupees to various states to take up afforestation and conservationactivities as per the provisions of CAF Act and Rules.
The Ministry alsostressed that the fund had to be used for important needs such as Compensatory Afforestation, CatchmentArea Treatment, Wildlife Management, Assisted Natural Regeneration, Forest FirePrevention and Control Operations, Soil and Moisture Conservation Works in theforest, Improvement of Wildlife Habitat, Management of Biological Diversity andBiological Resources, Research in Forestry and Monitoring of CAMPA works andothers.
Government needs to
focus on utilisation of the CAF funds effectively
Underutilisation and misuse of CA funds continues to be amajor cause of concern. The government has to step up the utilisation of thesefunds to not only undertake afforestation activities but also maintain theexisting forests that are facing degradation.
In addition to this, the government also implements GreenIndia Mission and National Afforestation Programme to increase the forest coverof India. All in all, proper utilization of the fund remains the biggestchallenze.