Around Rs 610 crore of the total CAMPA funds released by the Centre for compensatory afforestation over the past three years remain unutilised in Telangana, Union Minister of Tourism and Culture G Kishan Reddy has stated in a letter to Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao requesting him to promptly release the funds.
The Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) funds are meant for compensating the loss of forest land due to industrial purposes by planting more trees on additional land. Whenever any forest land is to be diverted for non-forestry purpose, it is compulsory that an equal area of non-forest land be used for afforestation and funds for the same are to be allocated.
While this can nowhere match up to the advantage offered by the already existing forests, the government views it as a way to “make up for the losses”. It is also seen as an alternate way of conserving the ecosystem without putting a halt to developmental projects, and at the same time, helping India achieve its 2030 target of creating additional carbon sink by increasing its forest and tree cover.
WHAT THE LETTER SAYS
In his letter dated April 16, the Union Minister, also a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP from Secunderabad, wrote that the Centre has released Rs 3,110 crore in funds under CAMPA to Telangana in 2019-20. The funds were to be utilised in accordance with the Annual Plan of Operations (APO) of the state government as approved by the Centre.
As per the approved plan, the state was to spend Rs 1,737 crore in three years between 2019-20 and 2021-22. However, in the past three years, the state has not been able to fully utilise the funds. The state has only used an amount of Rs 1,127.93 crore during the period, leaving Rs 610 crore unutilised. “This has impacted the habitats of various flora and fauna in the state and various conservation efforts,” the letter read.
TIGER DECLINE
Apart from afforestation, Reddy said the Centre had also released funds from time-to-time under various central government-sponsored schemes for forest conservation, wildlife conservation, maintenance of parks and zoos.
So far, in the past few years, about funds worth Rs 30 crore have been released, he wrote. However, even this share related to wildlife conservation was not being released by the state government. Besides, there is a serious delay in releasing funds of Rs 2.20 crore, which the state government is supposed to release as its share under Project Tiger, he added.
Citing the recently released National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) summary report, Reddy pointed out that Telangana was one of the few states where tiger population decreased and immediate conservation measures were needed. “Many reports make it clear that the state government is neglecting the use of these funds,” he added, requesting the CM to promptly release the funds to restore the lost forest land.
According to the summary report of the 5th cycle of All India Tiger Estimation, the tigers were locally extirpated from Kawal tiger reserve and Chennur in Telangana. The report has further highlighted the need to step up measures for recovery of the population, especially in high-potential states of Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Telangana.
However, under-utilisation of CAMPA funds continues to remain a major problem for various states, where the funds have been lying unused with the state exchequer.
The problem is also worsened by misutilisation of funds, non-availability of open land for afforestation as well as poor sustenance of the new trees planted on alternate land, which, in many cases, was found to be unsuitable for plantation.
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