Government Initiatives To Tackle Environmental Degradation

Over the years, India has taken several measures to control pollution, maintain ecological balance, increase forest area and keep its rivers clean. In this article, we take a look at some of these initiatives.

- Aniket Panja

Compensatory Afforestation Bill, 2016

The enactment of the Compensatory Afforestation Act, 2016 is aimed at ending ad-hocism and helping the central and state governments to utilise funds in a planned manner. It will make available more than 6,000 crore per annum to the states and union territories (UTs) for conservation, protection, improvement and expansion of forest and wildlife resources.

According to the government, availability of these funds will not only help the states and UTs and local communities to ensure better management of their forest resources but will also result in creation of more than 15 crore man days of direct employment. A major part of these amounts will be used to restock and improve quality of degraded forests, which constitutes more than 40% of the total forest cover of the country.

The Act provides for establishment of a permanent institutional framework to ensure utilisation of these funds in an effective and transparent manner. It provides for transfer of 90% of the accumulated amounts, which presently is of the order of 49,000 crore to the states for creation and maintenance of compensatory afforestation and execution of other activities for conservation, protection, improvement and expansion of forest and wildlife resources. The remaining 10% retained at the national level, will be used for monitoring and evaluation of activities undertaken by the states and UTs.

River and Water Conservation