NEW DELHI: The lands offered for compensatory afforestation (CA) are invariably inferior to good quality forestland allowed for the non-forest purpose for infrastructure projects and are generally offered by states at distant isolated and fragmented locations making its management by the forest department a difficult task, observed analysis by an environment ministry panel.
The Forest Advisory panel of the Union Environment Ministry has now directed the states to ensure that land proposed for raising CA in lieu of the proposed diversion of forestland is of good quality and is able to generate and compensate the Ecosystem Goods and Services (EG&S) lost from non-forestry use.
“The Committee, from the appraisal of proposals referred to it by the Central Government, observed that generally selection of CA land is done without giving due consideration of instruction/guidelines issued by the Ministry from time to time which provided that as far as possible, the CA land should be selected in the close vicinity of the forest area proposed for diversion and only in cases where such CA land is not available in the close vicinity, alternative land in the nearby district should be selected,” said the minutes of the meeting.
The panel in its latest meeting said that the concerned Integrated Regional Office of the Ministry will certify the suitability of land offered for CA in lieu of forest land proposed for diversion in terms of its vicinity to the area proposed for diversion and/or contiguity with the existing forest area and will ensure that manageability of such CA land has been taken care of for future.
It emphasized that land offered for compensatory afforestation is an important component of the proposal and good quality land for the purpose of raising CA should be selected in close proximity of forestland to compensate for the maximum loss of EG&S being foregone from the forest land.
“As far as permissible CA lands should be selected in the close proximity of area being diverted or existing forest areas to ease their management by the Forest Department and ensure their protection from likely encroachment in future,” it noted.