Record number of forest diversion took place in 2023 amidst decline in spend of CAMPA funds, MoEF data reveals

Introduction

In what comes as a big setback for India’s commitment to increase forest cover and fight climate change, the country has seen a rapid diversion of forest lands used for non-forest purposes, including record approval of proposals within sensitive forest areas. Furthermore, even as there has been increase in diversion of forest lands, the compensatory afforestation funds (or CAMPA), which are set aside to be used for offsetting forest loss, have seen reduced spending in 2023-24 compared to last two years prior to that.

These details were provided in response to an unstarred question asked by DMK MP T R Baalu in the Lok Sabha on July 22. Baalu asked the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF & CC) to provide information about total forest land diverted in last 5 years, details of projects approved in National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries, and data on utilisation of CAMPA funds and areas compensated through these funds. He also asked whether the government has carried out any study “on the impact on wildlife due to non-forestry and industrial activities in National Parks and Wildlife Sanctuaries and policy corrections taken up to ensure the health of these forest wealth?”

In response, the Minister of State for MoEF and CC, Kirtivardhan Singh, provided the data from the Ministry’s Parivesh Portal, which shows that a total of 95724.99 hectares of forest land for 8731 proposals have been approved by the Centre for non-forestry use from April 2019 to March 2024 under Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980 (previously called Forest Conservation Act, 1980). In addition, the number of such proposals recommended within the boundaries of National Parks and Sanctuaries have seen substantial spike in 2023-24 with record 421 proposals recommended in the year compared to 150 in 2022-23, 154 in 2021-22, 85 in 2020-21, and 71 in 2019-2020.

The tabular format for details of the proposals recommended in the Wild life sanctuaries and National Parks is given below:

The tabular format for detail of the funds spent on Compensatory Afforestation during last five years (in Crore):

The tabular format for showing details about forest area diverted for non-forestry purpose (State/UT wise) from 01/04/2019 to 31/03/2024:

The written answer by the Ministry also mentions that conservation measures undertaken by the government to reduce impact of developmental activities in the protected areas and notes that “In order to reduce the impact of linear infrastructure projects like railway lines on wildlife, the Ministry has developed and mandated the implementation of guidelines named ‘Eco-friendly Measures to Mitigate Impacts of Linear Infrastructure on Wildlife’. These guidelines suggest suitable mitigation measures for linear infrastructure projects taking into consideration factors such as terrain, animal behaviour patterns, animal migration routes, and other relevant parameters.”

In a separate query posed in the Lok Sabha by Bharat Adivasi Party MP from Rajasthan, Rajkumar Roat, he asked the MoEF to provide details on the forest land allotted to mining companies in the last 5 years. In response, the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Bhupendra Yadav, provided a detailed table regarding the forest land allotted to mining companies and said that ‘land’ is a state subject and while the Centre Government’s permission is needed for diversion of forest land for non-forestry purposes, “the final decision to assign on lease or allot the forest land for any non-forestry purpose is within the domain of the concerned State Government/ UT Administration.” As per the data given by the Minister, a total of 18922.98 hectares of forest land was given to mining companies in the last 5 years, with 179 mining proposals approved for the same.

The tabular data on forest land approved for mining projects from 01/04/2019 to 31/03/2024 can be found below:

The parliamentary response on diversion of forest land can be found here:

The parliamentary response on diversion of forest land due to mining can be found here:

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