National Mineral Policy 2006 - Department of Mines

(iii)Notwithstanding the above, survey, investigation and exploration shall not be carried out inwildlife sanctuaries, national parks and sample plots demarcated by the Forest Department withoutobtaining the prior approval of the Central Government, whether or not felling of trees is involved.3.22 As mentioned earlier, the guidelines issued under FCA stipulate inter alia thatcompensatory afforestation will be required to be carried out in exchange for the areadiverted for non-forest purposes and a comprehensive scheme to that effect has to beformulated by the state governments and submitted to the Central government in respect ofeach project. Separately, the Supreme Court, in its Order dated 30 October 2002, directed thata Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) should be created and all the monies receivedfrom the user agencies towards compensatory afforestation, additional compensatoryafforestation, penal compensatory afforestation, Catchment Area Treatment Plan Fund, etc.should be deposited therein. In addition to compensatory afforestation charges, the SupremeCourt, in the same Order, further directed that the user agency shall also pay into the CAF theNPV of the forest land diverted for non-forest purposes at the rate of Rs 5.80 lakh per hectareto Rs 9.20 lakh per hectare depending on the quantity and density of the forest land convertedto non-forest use. This was because it was noted that while the states did collect the CAFcharges for compensatory afforestation from the user agencies, these funds were not adequateto create compensatory forests to replace the forests lost. The Order of the Hon’ble SupremeCourt in Writ Petition (C) No. 202 of 1995 dated 26 September 2005 has extensively dealtwith the issue of calculation of NPV but the matter is still to receive finality, and the KanchanChopra Committee appointed by the Hon’ble Court has submitted its report in May 2006.The Kanchan Chopra Committee has recommended that compensatory afforestation chargesshould not be payable over and above the chargeable NPV and ground rent, and thisrecommendation is under consideration of the Hon’ble Court. While the final decision on theliability of mining lessees for use of forest land would be taken by the Hon’ble SupremeCourt, the Committee would like to make the following two recommendations with a view tolightening the burden on the lessees:(i) the NPV should be payable in instalments in proportion to the land broken inaccordance with the pre-submitted mining plan;(ii) The lessee should not be asked to pay NPV each time a lease is renewed.3.23 The fact that the FCA has served its objective is reflected in the drastic reduction inthe rate of diversion, which came down to 10–15 thousand hectares per year in the post-FCA80