Form panel to visit forest diverted on Assam-Nagaland border: NGT to Environment Ministry

Sub: Environment

Sec: Env Law

Tags: forest diverted on Assam-Nagaland border

Context:

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) instructed the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to form a three-member committee to survey a section of a reserve forest on the Assam-Nagaland border, allegedly diverted for an Assam police commando battalion.

Assam- Nagaland Border dispute:

Details:

The petition claimed that M.K. Yadava, Assam’s former Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, illegally diverted a significant part of the forest area without completing compensatory afforestation and net present value requirements, making him liable for restoring the damage.
Using forest land for non-forestry activities without prior central government permission violated the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980.
The battalion was intended to prevent encroachment by people from Nagaland along the interstate border, amid a long-standing boundary dispute between Assam and Nagaland.
In 2023, the Environment Ministry criticized Yadava for approving the construction of a commando battalion on approximately 44 hectares of forest land on the Assam-Mizoram border to address encroachment issues, noting that Assam also has a boundary dispute with Mizoram.

Net Present Value (NPV):

NPV is a monetary approximation of the value that is lost when a piece of forest land has been razed.
- It is a mandatory one-time payment that a user has to make for diverting forestland for non-forest use, under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
This is on the basis of the services and ecological value and there are prescribed formulae for calculating this amount which depends on the location and nature of the forest and the type of industrial enterprise that will replace a particular parcel of forest.
It was developed by a committee led by Professor Kanchan Gupta, of the Institute of Economic Growth.
These payments go to the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) and are used for afforestation and reforestation.
When was it introduced?
- To regulate forest diversions, the Supreme Court introduced a high ‘net present value’ (NPV) charge on the lands diverted.

Compensatory afforestation:

Compensatory afforestation means that every time forest land is diverted for non-forest purposes such as mining or industry, the user agency pays for planting forests over an equal area of non-forest land, or when such land is not available, twice the area of degraded forest land.

Compensatory afforestation Fund:

The CAF Act was passed by the centre in 2016 and the related rules were notified in 2018.
The CAF Act was enacted to manage the funds collected for compensatory afforestation which till then was managed by ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).
As per the rules, 90% of the CAF money is to be given to the states while 10% is to be retained by the Centre.
The funds can be used for the treatment of catchment areas, assisted natural generation, forest management, wildlife protection and management, relocation of villages from protected areas, managing human-wildlife conflicts, training and awareness generation, supply of wood-saving devices, and allied activities.

Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) Act:

It seeks to mitigate the impact of the diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes by making sure through a well-defined institutional mechanism, that the funds are released and utilized quickly, efficiently and transparently.
The CAMPA law is applicable to States, Union Territories, and the Centre as well.
The objectives of the CAMPA Law are stated below:
- To promote afforestation and development activities in order to compensate for forest land that is intended to be diverted to non-forest uses.
- To law down effective guidelines for the State
- To facilitate necessary assistance in terms of scientific, technological and other requisites that may be required by the authority responsible for the State CAMPA.
- To recommend measures based on strategic planning to the authorities of the State CAMPA
- To resolve issues that arise between inter-state or Centre-State.