Uttarakhand mulls plantation drive in other states to clear compensatory afforestation backlog

As per a report presented in at a recent meeting of the Uttarakhand Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) steering committee, the state government has carried out afforestation on 24,908 hectare land, against the total target of 33,944 hectare, which translates into a backlog of 9,035 hectare.

Against this backlog, the state CAMPA has set a target of afforestation on 3,500 hectare in the current financial year. However, Uttarakhand faces a shortage of suitable land for the remaining 5,535 hectare.

To this effect, the Uttarakhand CAMPA steering committee discussed a proposal for a plantation drive in other states. However, before this proposal can be executed, the Uttarakhand government will require a report from district authorities about availability or unavailability of the land within the state.

“District authorities have been asked to create land bank for compensatory afforestation. If found necessary, possibilities will be explored for afforestation in other states, preferably Uttar Pradesh, where it can be done in the Lalitpur and Banda area (in UP’s Bundelkhand) and also areas in Rajasthan,” said Uttarakhand CAMPA CEO J S Suhag. Suhag said that before Uttarakhand split away from UP, compensatory afforestation had been done in Lalitpur, Hardoi and Unnao districts against the diversion of forest land for the Tehri dam.