Chief Secretary, Atal Dulloo, today while addressing the 25th Steering Committee Meeting of Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), emphasized on the department to work dedicatedly towards achieving the set targets in a given timeframe.

The meeting besides Commissioner Secretary, Forests, Ecology & Environment was attended by Principal Secretary, Finance; PCCF; Chief Wildlife Warden; Secretary, Planning; Director, Remote Sensing; CEO, CAMPA and other concerned HoDs of the department.

During the meeting, the Chief Secretary took stock of the afforestation efforts made during the past year and the targets achieved during this time. He asked the officers to complete installation of Boundary Pillars (BPs) around the forests across J&K to ensure their protection.

He also enjoined upon the concerned to digitise these BPs in order to create digitized maps of all the forest areas. He urged them to give details of the areas treated in lieu of the forest areas that came under Hydro Electric Projects of Kwar, Kiru and Ratlehere.

Dulloo further remarked that forests are lungs of the earth guaranteeing its sustainability. He advised for adopting modern technology to map the highly degraded areas for its treatment on priority basis.

On the occasion, Commissioner Secretary, FE&E, Sheetal Nanda, informed the meeting about the role and responsibilities of the Steering Committee in deciding the future course of action to take up the CAMPA works during the year ahead.

She also made out that the Committee had an overarching role of monitoring the department’s activities besides giving necessary directions for utilization of resources to achieve the desired goals.

Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Suresh Kumar Gupta, gave out that the scheme is being implemented smoothly in the UT, obtaining tangible results over the years. He said that installation and digitization of BPs around the forests had been achieved to a larger extent with the left out forests to be demarcated in the year or two ahead.

He asserted that the department has established strong internal and social audit mechanisms, including inter-range and inter-divisional checks, alongside monthly, quarterly, and annual reporting formats to monitor the outcomes of this CAMPA scheme.

Moreover, it was given out that the public transparency is being maintained through the e-Green Watch portal, where data from 3,410 projects (including geotagged coordinates) is accessible.

Elaborating further, CEO CAMPA, T. Rabi Kumar, revealed that the third-party evaluations show improved survival rates. The third party evaluation (2012–2019) reported a 50% survival rate and in the next phase (2019–2022), conducted by AFC India Limited, survival rates improved significantly to 62.70%, with Kashmir at 65.40% and Jammu at 60%.

Giving the financial overview of this scheme as on March 2024, it was divulged that a total of Rs 851.65 crore were available with an approved outlay of Rs 276.27 crore for FY 2024-25. It was further added than an expenditure  of Rs 153.67 was booked during this year leaving a balance of Rs 727.66 crore available with the department.

As far as the outcomes over the past 15 years are concerned, the meeting was apprised that during 2010-11 to 2024-25, a substantial amount of forest land has been treated under CAMPA initiatives, with the total area afforested reaching thousands of hectares. A significant financial commitment of Rs 1369.76 crore has been made during this period.

In addition, it was given out that the CAMPA budget has seen consistent increase over the years, peaking at Rs 153.67 crore in FY 2024-25 with corresponding increase in year-wise plantation efforts. These efforts are aimed at enhancing green cover, improving biodiversity, and mitigating the impact of climate change.

The Annual Plan Outlay (APO) for the fiscal year 2025–26 was presented and approved, with a total proposed outlay of Rs 193.72 crore, of which, Rs 170.47 crore have been proposed under the forest sector activities and Rs 23.25 crore under wildlife conservation.

Regarding different components of APO, the Compensatory Afforestation has an outlay of Rs 12.71 crore, Additional Compensatory Afforestation Rs 7.27 crore, NPV (Forest) Rs117.96 crore and NPV (Protected Areas) Rs 23.25 for the ensuing year.

The Committee also reviewed and approved several key targets for the upcoming fiscal year. These included Plantation & Assisted Natural Regeneration on 14,680 hectares, Soil & Moisture Conservation Works on 6,468 hectares, Forest Protection Works (Fencing etc.) on 8,087 hectares, Fire Protection Measures on 2,061 km (firelines), establishment of 163 Nurseries and plantation of 1.82 crore saplings to be planted generating 20.24 lakh casual labour man days across the UT.

Later, the Chief Secretary also released the ‘Annual Asian Water bird Census’ (AWC 2025) of 26 wetlands/ waterbodies of Kashmir valley. The Count was conducted simultaneously in all the major water-bodies along with lesser-known wetlands of the valley which included Hokersar, Shallabugh, Hygam, Mirgund, Wullar Lake Badinambal, Narkara, Nigeen Lake, (6 associated wetlands, Anchar Lake, Dal Lake, and wetlands from Pampore viz., Manibugh, Kranchoo, Chatlum and Fashkhoori.

It was revealed that the activity was conducted by 160 volunteers including NG0s, Bird Lovers, students from Kashmir University and SKUAST-K along with the staff of Wetlands Division and North Division.

The survey culminated into recording a total of 13,43,506 number of birds belonging to 67 species in all the wetlands. Hokersar contributed 29.97 % of the total birdcount followed by Shallabugh (29.44%) and other wetlands (40.59%).

On the occasion, the Chief Secretary launched two mobile apps pertaining to monitoring of CAMPA works and its nursery module for real time updation of data by the concerned to chase the targets on time