Nagaland not entitled due to non-payment of charges
Morung Express News
Dimapur| July 26
After getting a nod from the Supreme Court on utilization of more than Rs. 11,000 crore lying under the Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund, the Environment & Forest ministry has said that the money will be spent on regenerating forests on 6 million hectares of degraded forest land across the country. The principal amount and Rs 1,300-odd crore in interest has accumulated as money collected by various states for the conversion of forest land to non-forestry use. And according to media reports “the highest diversion of forest land appears to be in Nagaland, where project owners have together contributed Rs. 1,310 crore to CAMPA.” This report was carried on July 11 in some leading national dailies. The state Forest department has refuted the media reports.
“Nagaland has not contributed anything to CAMPA so we are not entitled to any amount,” an officer in the department from Kohima stated. The Chief Conservator of Forest (CCF), Panger Jamir, said that the government controls only 11.3% of forest land in the state; perhaps the lowest in the country and it is currently not being used for any non-forestry use. He said that as most of the land is privately owned, the question of contributing such a huge amount does not arise.
Moreover, if such a contribution has been made, the government would have been aware, the CCF said. The officer also said that even if the “project owners” have contributed to CAMPA without the knowledge of the government, he commented that it could not be such a huge amount because only a few projects are in progress.
Currently the Doyang and Dikhu hydro power projects and the Tiru coal mining project are underway and these units have not made contributions to CAMPA, the CCF informed. Apart from the forest reserves the state has only 12.6 square kilometers of purchased land for the Tuli paper mill, Jamir informed further. Many officers in the department expressed surprise over the media report and said such can be misleading. On the other hand they also expressed regret that the state is being left out on this mega afforestation programme. States that will benefit most are Orissa (Rs 1,462 crore), Chhattisgarh (Rs 1,448 crore), Jharkhand (Rs 1,073 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 1,027 crore), and Maharashtra (Rs 1,012 crore).
The companies and corporations both public and private pay various charges for use of forest land to CAMPA out of which this compensatory afforestation programme has to be financed. Although the state has been losing forest land rapidly mainly due to jhum cultivation and timber harvest, more than 88% of land is private owned and the government cannot meddle in private activities. A report tabled in the Rajya Sabha in 2002 on targets of compensatory afforestation stated that “Nagaland has made no achievement regarding compensatory afforestation.” Seven year on and the matter has not progressed. The government still lacks rigid policies for user- agencies on private land.
(With agency inputs)
.jpg)
