PANJIM: Citing non-availability of degraded land to take up compensatory afforestation (CA) towards tree loss, the Goa government has proposed to take up 300 ha of plantation in Madhya Pradesh.
The State Forest Department has sought permission from the National Authority of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) to take up backlog of 1600 ha of CA plantation.
At the meeting on April 27, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Subhash Chandra informed the Executive Committee of the National Authority that Madhya Pradesh has been requested by the State for taking up the backlog of CA plantation.
“Madhya Pradesh has made provision for 300 ha of CA plantation in the current year and that the State will transfer fund to Madhya Pradesh for taking up the plantation,” the minutes of the meeting, states.
Herald had earlier revealed that the Forest Department in its document ‘Vision of Forest Department 2020-25’ has proposed to take up phase wise afforestation of 2500 ha, including 1800 ha of backlog compensatory afforestation, beginning from the current year.
At the meeting, the State also submitted a Rs 32.70 crore Annual Plan of Operation (APO) 2021-22 towards CA.
The Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) had granted the Goa government permission to undertake compensatory afforestation in Karnataka towards the tree loss due to the Tamnar power project.
MoEF had in August 2019 released Rs 238 crore to the State government under CAMPA for promoting afforestation and achieving green objectives in the country.
Under the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, when a piece of forest land is diverted for non-forestry purpose like mining or infrastructure, an equal area of revenue land/non-forest land or double the area of degraded forest land has to be used for compensatory reforestation. The land, after compensatory afforestation, gets notified either as Reserved or Protected Forest (RF/PF).
As per Forest Survey of India (FSI) report, total forest cover of the State is 2,237.49 sq km, of which 1,125 sq kms is an open forest.
