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CAF’s Released
Why is it in news?
- Union Environment Ministry to transferred ₹47,436 crore to 27 States for afforestation.
- These are a part of Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF).
More in news
- About CAF
- These have been collected for nearly a decade as environmental compensation from industry, which has razed forest land for its business plans.
- Economic value–
(1) The amount to be paid by industry depends on the economic value of the goods and services that the razed forest would have provided.
(2) These include timber, bamboo, firewood, carbon sequestration, soil conservation, water recharge, and seed dispersal.
(3) Industrialists pay this money and this is eventually transferred to the States concerned to carry out afforestation.
- CAF Act 2016
- The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authoritywas established to execute the fund.
- Centre would use geographic tagging technology to keep a tab on whether States were using their allotted funds appropriately.
- What are the Concerns
(1) Only a fraction of this corpus had actually been disbursed to States,
(2) States are requesting for using this funds for non-forestry purposes,
(3) Funds are used by the State to ride roughshod over tribal rights,
(4) Unscientific afforestation methods were often implemented to make good razed forests.
- Odishato have maximum and Keralato have the minimum of this amount.
Source
The Hindu