Compensatory afforestation in certain degraded forests cleared

Following requests from the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and the Sikkim government, the union environment ministry has clarified that compensatory afforestation can be carried out in degraded forest land, unclassed forests, and the so-called orange lands of central India, in an area that is double that being developed, based on a certificate issued by states with more than 33% forest cover.

- Jayashree Nandi

Compensatory afforestation is a means to offset the loss of forests due to diversion for various infrastructure and development projects by planting trees over the same extent of area in non-forest land. The Forest Conservation Rules 2022 state that a user agency (of any infrastructure project) shall provide land which is neither notified as forest nor managed as forest by the forest department and it shall also bear the cost of raising compensatory afforestation over such land.

Only in exceptional circumstances, when the suitable non-forest land is not available and a certificate to this effect is given by the state government, compensatory afforestation may be considered on degraded forest land which is twice in extent to the area, for Central Government agencies or Central Public Sector Undertakings, and only on a case-to-case basis, it adds.

HT reported on August 27, 2020 that the Union environment ministry allowed Central agencies to take up compensatory afforestation in degraded forest land instead of non-forest land. But the 2022 rules removed the provision allowing it only for exceptional cases.