Haryana govt plans to use panchayat land to make up for green cover loss

GURUGRAM: The Haryana forest department will earmark 2,200 acres of land - 100 acres in each district, most of it owned by panchayats - for compensatory afforestation, a condition that is mandatory for clearance to development projects and is meant to make up for the loss of green cover due to construction.
The land will be allocated for plantation drives under Section 38 of the Forest (Conservation) Act, which will allow the forest department to manage it though its ownership will remain with the panchayat.
Officials said on Wednesday that the move will help improve the state's green cover. At 3.62%, Haryana ranks among the states with the lowest green cover in India.
It is also fast losing trees and plants. According to the Forest Survey of India, Gurgaon lost 2.47sqkm of forest cover between 2019 and 2020. Haryana's tree cover (excluding forest area) reduced by 140 sqkm in the same period.
"We will have a land bank in each district and this will be used for the afforestation plan. This land will be panchayat land, bhood (the foothills of Aravalis) and gair mumkin pahar (uncultivable hill)," Vivek Saxena, the chairman of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), told TOI.
The state also needs to pick up pace in carrying out compensatory afforestation drives.
In June this year, TOI had reported that forest land was diverted for dozens of projects in Gurgaon but the plantation drives, some dating back to 2010, were still pending. Around 2 lakh trees are supposed to be planted to make up for the green losses in Gurgaon. At the time, forest officials had cited a lack of availability of land in the district to give it for plantation drives.
Some experts, when asked about the efficacy of such a plan, said carrying out these drives on panchayat land may not protect the trees from being chopped down in the future.
"This plan is incorrect. If we are losing notified forests, then the land where afforestation should be carried out should also be notified as a forest. It is not accurate to say that the state does not have adequate land (for compensatory afforestation). The Aravalis are here... the government should carry out plantations in degraded areas and designate them as protected forests," said RP Balwan, the former forest conservator of Gurgaon.
On this criticism, a Gurgaon forest official said afforestation can only be carried out on land where at least 40% of the existing forest/green cover is degraded.
"Earlier, CA was carried out along the road sides, but it was observed that in many cases, the trees and shrubs were cut as paths were widened. That's why it was decided that no such plantation will take place around the roads. This further made the search for land difficult in Gurgaon," the official said.
Plantation drives are compulsory to be carried out by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) after forest land is given for development work such as construction of industries and roads. The scheme, introduced in 2004, is critical to get green clearance for the projects and make up for the green losses in the long run.