Bhubaneswar: The Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF) on Thursday released Rs 47,436.18 crore to 27 states, including Odisha, under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management And Planning Authority (CAMPA).
Among the states, Odisha has received the highest CAMPA fund of Rs 5933.89 crore. It is followed by Chhattisgarh (Rs 5791.70 crore), Madhya Pradesh (Rs 5196.69 crore) and Jharkhand (Rs 4158.02 crore). Kerala has received the lowest fund of Rs 81.59 crore.
The remaining states that have received the CAMPA aid are Maharashtra, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Assam, Bihar, Sikkim, Manipur, Goa, West Bengal, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Tamil Nadu.
Union Environment and Forest Minister Prakash Javadekar announced the release of CAMPA funds at a meeting of all state forest ministers in New Delhi.
The minister said the corpus will be utilised for compensatory afforestation, wildlife management, prevention of forest fire, soil and moisture conservation works in forests, voluntary relocation of villages from protected areas, management of biological resources and biodiversity, research in forestry and monitoring CAMPA works.
Odisha Forest and Environment Minister Bikram Keshari Arukha represented the state at the meeting.
