CAMPA Law - Definition, Objectives and CAMPA Fund [UPSC Indian Polity]

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) Act seeks to mitigate the impact of diversion of forest land for non-forest purposes by making sure through a well-defined institutional mechanism, that the funds are released and utilized quickly, efficiently and transparently. The CAMPA law is applicable to States, Union Territories, and the Centre as well. This is an important topic for IAS Exam aspirants.

Read about the objectives, state CAMPA and CAMPA fund in this article.

What are the objectives of CAMPA Law?

The objectives of the CAMPA Law are stated below:

• To promote afforestation and development activities in order to compensate for forest land that is intended to be diverted to non-forest uses.
• To law down effective guidelines for the State
• To facilitate necessary assistance in terms of scientific, technological and other requisites that may be required by the authority responsible for the State CAMPA.
• To recommend measures based on strategic planning to the authorities of the State CAMPA
• To resolve issues that arise between inter-state or Centre-State.

Read more about how CAMPA and the Forest Rights Act go hand in hand by visiting the linked article

What is state CAMPA?

The authority or the instrumenting body that is responsible for accelerating activities for preservation of natural forests, effective management and monitoring of wildlife, infrastructure development in the sector and other allied works in the State is known as the State CAMPA.

What is the structure of the governing body of State CAMPA?

The State CAMPA comprises the following members:

What is CAMPA Fund?

In simple terms, it can be called as the compensation in monetary values that has to be deposited along with the net value of the land under the CAMPA law by the authorities who are diverting the forest lands for non-forest purposes so as to raise the forest. This is done along with compensating the use of forest-land with the equivalent non-forest land that has to be taken up for afforestation. Authorities that divert the land have to bear the cost of Compensatory Afforestation.

A few facts about the CAMPA fund:

• The Supreme Court of India in 2002 (TN Godhavarman Vs Union of India case) had ordered the creation of CAMPA fund.
• CAMPA was established in 2004 to manage the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) and it acts as the custodian of the CAMPA fund.
• After the CAG report of 2013 where it was mentioned that CAMPA funds are going unutilized CAF Act, 2016 came into force on 30th September 2018
• National Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of India and State Compensatory Afforestation Fund under the Public Account of each state was created
• The State Funds will receive 90% of the payments while the National Fund will receive the remaining 10%.
• All states except Nagaland have set up state CAMPAs following this notification, as of November 2019.

To know more about the National Green Tribunal (NGT), visit the linked article

Current Affairs related to the CAMPA for UPSC

Indian government handed 47,436 crores Rupees that were deposited in CAMPA funds to various states in August 2019 to foster the afforestation and green objectives of the country.

The funds are long-pending dues, part of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF), that has been collected for nearly a decade as environmental compensation from the industry.

CAMPA Law – UPSC Notes:-Download PDF Here

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Multiple Choice Question

Consider the following statements

1. With a view to checking further deforestation, the President promulgated on the 25th October, 1980, the Forest (Conservation) Ordinance, 1980. The Ordinance made the prior approval of the Central government necessary for de- reservation of reserved forests and for use of forest-land for non-forest purposes.
2. The debate over defining a forest came to the fore in 1996 with the Supreme Court ruling in the case of TN Godavarman Thirumulpad vs Union of India. The case began as a petition to stop illegal felling of timber in the Nilgiri hills but expanded into an overhaul of the Indian forest policy
3. The Indian Forest Act of 1927 does not define forests, though forest areas have been legally notified under it as reserve forest, protected forest or village forest.
4. The Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 an Act of the Parliament of India to provide for the conservation of forests and for matters connected therewith or ancillary or incidental thereto. It was further amended in 1988.

Choose the correct answer from the below-given options

A) None of the above statements are true

B) Only statements 1 and 3 are true.

C) Only statements 1 and 4 are true.

D) All the above statements are true.

Answer: D

To know what other topics are covered under the UPSC Syllabus, visit the linked article. For more UPSC related preparation material, visit the links given in the table below:

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