Parliament passes bill for compulsory afforestation fund

The bill to establish national and state compensatory afforestation fund, which may lead to unlocking of over Rs 40,000 crore from the Centre, was passed by parliament on Thursday.

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015, which was passed by the Lok Sabha in May, got the nod of the upper house on Thursday.

The bill seeks to create a Compensatory Afforestation Management and Planning Authority and a Compensatory Afforestation Fund.

The funds will be primarily spent on afforestation to compensate for loss of forest cover, regeneration of forest ecosystem, wildlife protection and infrastructure development.