The National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) has informed the Madras High Court of having ₹8,154.84 crore with it as on March 31, 2023, but has expressed reservations over allocating around ₹74 crore for relocating the inhabitants of 500 acres of forest land in Thengumarahada village in Kothagiri Taluk of the Nilgiris district.
Appearing before Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, Central Government Senior Panel Counsel V. Chandrasekaran said, money required for relocation could be used only from State CAMPA funds because allocation from national CAMPA funds would lead to similar requests from other States and consequent exhaustion of the reserve.
He explained to the Bench the funds were governed by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act of 2016. As per procedure, 90% of the funds collected by the State government and union territories were given back to them and the rest 10% was retained under the national fund for recurring and non recurring expenditure, including payment of salaries and allowances.
Stating ₹20,082.84 crore was available under the State CAMPA funds as on March 31, 2023, the counsel said, these funds were released from time to time after reconciliation of amount of compensatory levies in each case of diversion of forest land realised in compliance of the conditions of forest clearance accorded by the Centre under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.
Giving the breakup, Mr. Chandrasekharan said, status of fund available with National CAMPA with respect to Tamil Nadu as on June 30, 2023 was ₹43.45 crore, which included the State share (90%) of ₹39.10 crore. He also stated that voluntary relocation of villages from protected areas was an activity to be carried out from the State CAMPA funds.
After hearing him and senior counsel T. Mohan and advocate M. Santhanaram, who had been appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in relocating the villages from the forest area, the judges reserved their verdict in the case.
