September-1, Bellary: While the Supreme Court constituted Central Empowered Committee (CEC) has raised serious concerns about the impact of mining on the environment in Bellary, Chitradurga and Tumkur, it now appears that the state and Union governments have done little to use funds collected from mining companies for afforestation in these districts.
Schemes drawn up by the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) took off in Karnataka as late as 2009-10 although mining has caused serious damage to the environment of these districts over the last decade. A mere Rs 3.11 crore has been spent on greening Bellary district, Rs 2.99 crore on Chitradurga and Rs 78 lakh on Tumkur district over the last two years, according to information provided by the office of the Chief Conservator of Forests, CAMPA, under RTI. There is obviously no shortage of funds as the mining companies have paid Rs 634.43 crore as Net Present Value (NPV), Rs 67.48 crore as compensatory afforestation fees and Rs 3 crore as safety zone fee upto March 2011.
The CAMPA fund was created in 2004 to make sure that industrial units which used forest land deposited its net value with the authority for afforestation and forest management programmes. Although Karnataka has contributed over Rs 705 crore of the Rs 11,000 crore collected across the country till the end of 2010, it received only Rs 58 crore from the Centre as the first installment in August last year, according to official sources.
Forest officers admit that the biggest drawback of CAMPA is that the money collected as afforestation fee cannot be used in the same region. “The Union Ministry of Environment and Forests, which controls CAMPA distributes the funds across the states and so Bellary district is not getting its due share although it contributes hugely to the fund,” said an officer. The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI), southern zone pointed out in a memorandum to the Environment Impact Assessment study team of the Supreme Court, that its members who hold 33 mining leases in Bellary, had contributed nearly Rs 500 crore under NPV and compensatory afforestation charges to CAMPA. “The state government has collected nearly `300 crores by way of forest development tax alone. We are not aware how this amount has been utilised,” the federation said.
