Under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) Scheme in Chhattisgarh, extensive work will be done to increase the overall productivity of forest areas, along with proper wildlife management and maintaining ground water conservation in forest areas.

The meeting of Steering Committee of CAMPA was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Amitabh Jain at Mantralaya, Nava Raipur, in which proposals worth Rs 544.39 crore were approved in the Annual Action Plan of CAMPA for the year 2023-24.

Chief Secretary Jain reviewed the progress of CAMPA’s works in great detail. Officials informed that under the annual action plan of CAMPA for the year 2023-24, the work related to increasing the productivity of forest areas, compensatory tree plantation, restoration of bamboo forests, wildlife management and increasing groundwater conservation in the forest area are some extensive development works that will be done on a priority basis. In today’s meeting, it was recommended to extend the tenure of the members of the CAMPA Steering Committee and Implementation Committee for one year.

Officials said that along with compensatory afforestation from the ‘CAMPA mad’, various forest development works like, silviculture work, protection of forests, development of pastures for improvement of the habitat of wild animals, development and protection of fruit plantations and water sources in the forest area is being done to increase productivity of the forest area. And especially, ground water conservation work is being done to conserve water and maintain the ground water level in forest areas as well. Along with this, tree plantation and water catchment area development works are being done on the banks of the rivers to keep the nature of important rivers of State intact.

Similarly, forest roads are being constructed and upgraded to facilitate the movement in forest areas. Construction of buildings for the front line staff of the Forest Department and necessary facilities are being developed in the forest colonies. From the year 2019-20 to the year 2022-23 , work has been done under CAMPA in 27 thousand 308 hectare area. For the implementation of CAMPA works, a proposal of Rs 779 crore 37 lakh was sent to the Government of India under the second supplement in the year 2022-23, against which a budget of Rs 300 crore has been approved. Under the habitat development of wild animals, in addition to the development of water sources from the Campa head, the work of pasture development has been done in a 4889-hectare area and fruit tree plantation work has been done in 582 hectares,. Apart from providing fodder to the wild animals through pasture development work in the forest areas, fodder will be made available to the nearby herds. Additional Chief Secretary Panchayat and Rural Development Department Subrat Sahoo participated in the meeting through video conference. Principal Secretary Forest and Home Manoj Kumar Pingua, Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Sanjay Shukla, Secretary of Tribal Development D D Singh, Secretary of Revenue N N Ekka, Chief Executive Officer of CAMPA V Srinivasa Rao and officers of Forest Department and other departments attended the meeting.