The Madras High Court on Monday granted time till Thursday for the Centre to disclose the money available under the national fund of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) so that it could be used for relocating the inhabitants of 500 acres of forest land in Thengumarahada village in Kothagiri Taluk of the Nilgiris district.
Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy asked Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan to obtain the details by Thursday since Inspector General of Forests R. Raghu Prasad, serving under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, told the court the details regarding the CAMPA funds were not available with him immediately.
When the judges wanted to know why couldn’t the National Tiger Conservation Authority allocate ₹74 crore required by the State government to compensate the inhabitants of Thengumarahada, the central officers told the court the issue would be discussed by the executive committee and governing body of CAMPA and a decision would be taken depending upon availability of funds.
They, however, did not have an answer when the court wanted to know the exact quantum of money lying in the national fund of CAMPA. Senior counsel T. Mohan, who had been appointed as an amicus curiae, however claimed that over ₹54,000 crore of CAMPA fund was available in 2019 of which 10% had been marked for national fund and the rest was meant for State fund.
Stating that 10% would amount to a whopping amount of ₹5,400 crore, the senior counsel said, the money would have now grown somewhere close to ₹7,000 crore. Since relocation of Thengumarhada inhabitants would benefit not only Tamil Nadu, but also Kerala and Karnataka, the Centre could very well allocate necessary funds, he said.
Finding force in his submissions, Justice Kumar said, Thengumarhada was formed in 1952 by leasing out reserved forest lands to 142 individuals who were given three acres each for food crop cultivation. Now, none of them were using the lands for cultivation and instead serving as a hindrance for free movement of wild animals in the ecologically sensitive area.
