ENVIRONMENT - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

NEW DELHI, AUG. 5. The Union Environment Minister, A. Raja, today announced the
constitution of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority
(CAMPA). The fund will be provided to the States for forest conservation purposes. Inaugurating
a two-day State Forest Ministers Conference here, Mr. Raja said the Centre had written to all
State Governments about CAMPA and sought their opinion on it. The compensatory fund would
receive the money for user agencies towards forest conservation plans such as afforestation,
catchment area treatment plan, net present value or for compliance of any other condition laid
down by the Central Government while according approval for a project. "The amount collected
by the CAMPA will be invested in the Reserve Bank of India, nationalised banks, post offices or
other government securities," he said. The funds would be released to the States and Union
Territories in pre-determined instalments through the State Management Committees for
specified purposes. Pointing out that CAMPA had been constituted as per the Supreme Court's
directions, Mr. Raja asked the State Governments to set up State management committees to
ensure that CAMPA functioned in an effective manner. (The Hindu 6.8.04)
8 th Aug
Disaster on banks of Ganga: Forest cover going (9)
Hardwar, August 7: HARDWAR'S GREEN cover is in danger, and a forest department policy may
be the unwitting enabler of this threat. Under a policy called the 'Clear Felling Policy', plots of
forest-land under commercial plantation are leased out after the forest department has felled the
trees. Villagers who live in the area say the leaseholders are using the lease to gain legal entry
into the forest and then cutting trees and smuggling them out under the guise of removing waste
wood and roots from the leased lands. Sabir Ali Ansari, pradhan of Shampur village, says cultivation
on forest lands is not profitable and wonders why anyone would want to lease those lands.
"We don't get much yield from our lands, which are better irrigated. How can those lands be
better? Besides, animals trample our crops so what chance do crops in those forest plots have?"
The answer lies in timber smuggling, he says. "When we go into the forest to collect firewood or
graze cattle, the forest people harass us and impose fines. But they don't notice anything when
whole trees are being cut and removed", says Pappu Pradhan of Nalvola. (Hindustan Times
8.8.04)
9 th Aug
Lessons not learnt from Bhopal disaster: Experts (9)
BHOPAL, AUG. 8. The distinguished scientist and President of Leadership for Environment and
Development (LEAD) India, M.G.K. Menon, today said that it was the responsibility of both the
State and the Company to decontaminate the Union Carbide plant, where large quantities of toxic
waste continued to lie abandoned even 20 years after the gas disaster. Professor Menon was
speaking at the valedictory session of LEAD India's three-day meeting here. He said that every
one focussed attention on the Bhopal gas disaster but there appeared to be very little concern for
large number of sites that were highly contaminated by industries --both multinational and Indian.
In fact, he said, we were sitting on ticking time bombs that could lead to enormous
consequences. He said DNA has proved that all living things are one and we are one with nature.
The concept of non-violence and harmony was linked with this. This created the fundamental
value system that related to social justice and ethics. The area of environment and development
should be based on the concept of social justice, he said adding that development should be for
successive generations. (The Hindu 9.8.04)
11 th Aug
50 Orissa MLAs seek law against forest mafia (9)
Bhubaneswar FIFTY MLAs , cutting across the party lines, have sought a law on lines of the
Maharashtra Tree Act to save the vanishing forests of Orissa. They have also demanded action
against timber mafia. In a memorandum to Chief Minister Navin Pat-naik, the legislators have
said that illegal tree felling is setting the exchequer back by Rs 5 crore daily and if the trend
continues, the entire green sylvan wealth of the state is bound to disappear. Besides, they have
argued that the depletion of forests would hit the livelihood of 1.10 crore tribals, harijans and other
economically backward classes who depend on collection and sale of minor forest produce like