No land for afforestation? Goa Foundation says there is

PANJIM: The assumed non-availability of degraded land to take up compensatory afforestation towards the tree loss that will occur due to the Tamnar power project, has led to the Goa government planting saplings in Karnataka. But, NGO Goa Foundation (GF) has now revealed to Herald that the State has over 1100 sq kms of open forest land, which can be easily converted into medium forest.

Goa Foundation, which has filed a writ petition in the High Court of Bombay at Goa seeking a stay on the felling of over 1.31 lakh trees from Narendra in Karnataka to Xeldem in Goa for the power project, has pointed out to the Court that the compensatory afforestation taken up in Karnataka is illegal and not within the law.

What is more interesting is that Karnataka itself has not utilised the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) scheme for the last five years towards afforestation, GF said based on RTI documents produced before the Court.

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).  

In May 2019, the Union Ministry for Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) modified the compensatory afforestation rules, wherein it stated that States with more than 75 per cent of their total land as forests shall not be required to provide non-forest land for compensatory afforestation and the same can be carried out in another State.

“Goa State does not fall within this Rule. As per Forest Survey of India (FSI) report, total forest cover of the State is 2,237.49 sq km, which is 60.44 per cent of the total geographical area, which is less than 75 per cent as required under the law. More so, the State government in an affidavit filed before the Court has informed it that the State’s actual forest cover is only 33 per cent,” GF director Claude Alvares explained.

Of this, Alvares said that as per the FSI report 1,125 sq km is open forest. “The same can be converted into medium forest. May not be entire 1,125 sq kms but 60-70 per cent of it can be,” the green activist said.

The Centre had in August 2019 released the entire fund of Rs 238 crore, collected since 2009, under CAMPA to the State treasury towards compensatory afforestation.Alvares further said that as per the investigation undertaken by green activists, among the several plots identified for compensatory afforestation in Karnataka, one is right in the middle of the city. He said that as per the rules, Goa will provide the funds, while Karnataka will plant, protect and maintain the tree cover.

For the Tamnar power project, nearly 62,289 trees will be cut in Karnataka, whereas in Goa, it is 68,793.