Question : TREE PLANTATION

(a) whether the Supreme Court of India has recently ordered a high power Committee to investigate the claims of plantation of double number of trees in lieu of trees felled for various development projects of the country and particularly at Taj Trapezium Zone in Agra;

(b) if so, the total number of trees felled for the implementation of major developments projects and the number of trees planted in the country including Bihar during each of the last three years and the current year;

(c) whether the Government has set up any mechanism to monitor plantation programmes in the country; and

(d) if so, the details thereof?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT, FORESTS AND CLIMATE CHANGE (SHRI PRAKASH JAVADEKAR)

(a) The Hon’ble Supreme Court vide its order dated 26.11.2014 passed in I. A. No. 460, 470, 478-481, 486 and 517-518 in Writ Petition (Civil) No. 13381/1984 in M.C. Mehta Vs. Union of India and others has directed the Member Secretary, Central Empowered Committee (CEC) and another member of CEC Shri S. K. Patanaik to verify the claim made by the State Government in the compliance affidavit filed before the court and also to report whether any plantation work has indeed taken place at the location indicated in the affidavit. The Court has also directed the Member Secretary, CEC and Shri S. K. Patanaik to verify whether or not trees that were permitted to be felled by the court have actually been felled.

(b) The Central Government grants approval under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 for diversion of forest land for implementation of major developmental projects in the country including Bihar in terms of area (in hectares) and not in terms of number of trees. However, in the approval the condition is stipulated that minimum number of trees should be felled under the supervision of the State Forest Department.

(c)& (d) The Central Government carry out monitoring of plantation programmes by way of fund utilization certificates, quarterly physical progress reports and social auditing by the Joint Forest Management Committee (JFM) members. Geo-coordinates of all the sanctioned plantations are also to be submitted by the planting agencies/State Governments. 2% of the total plantation cost under National Afforestation Programme (NAP) is provided to the State Forest Development Agencies to commission third party evaluation of the plantations. The compensatory afforestation works are also monitored through quarterly progress reports, third party monitoring and case studies undertaken by the India Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal. E-green watch programme has also been launched under the supervision of the Forest Survey of India, Dehradun.