Compensatory Afforestation: the land and plantation that offsets a forest diversion.

It is the condition attached to a forest diversion requiring the user agency to make land available for afforestation to compensate for the forest being lost, and to fund the raising and maintenance of the plantation on it. It is the core condition of a Stage-I approval and the usual reason Stage-II takes time.

The general rule is non-forest land equal in extent to the forest land being diverted. Where suitable non-forest land is not available, degraded forest land of twice the extent is taken up instead, on conditions set by the Central Government. Which route applies is settled with the Forest Department, not chosen by the proponent.

The State Forest Department executes the plantation and its maintenance using funds deposited by the user agency into the Compensatory Afforestation Fund. The proponent's obligation is to provide acceptable land and pay the assessed cost; it does not ordinarily carry out the planting itself.

The Forest Department may accept land elsewhere in the State or direct that degraded forest land of twice the extent be taken up. Location preferences vary between States and the departmental view governs, so a proponent should test candidate parcels with the department early rather than acquire land on an assumption.

No, and both are payable. Compensatory afforestation replaces the forest area with land and a funded plantation. Net present value is a separate payment for the ecological services the diverted forest would have provided over time. They are computed on different bases and appear as separate conditions and separate demand notes.

The Divisional Forest Officer inspects and reports on the suitability of the offered parcel (its location, contiguity with existing forest, terrain, plantability and freedom from encumbrance) and the State Forest Department takes the view. Land that is technically available but not plantable or not contiguous is regularly rejected.

It has to be, in the sense that transfer and mutation are Stage-I conditions to be complied with before Stage-II. But identification should begin much earlier. A proposal that reaches Stage-I with no credible land in view has simply deferred its hardest problem.

The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2016 gave statutory form to the national and State funds into which compensatory afforestation, net present value and related levies are deposited, and to the authorities that manage them. For a proponent it means the payments follow a defined route and produce a traceable deposit record that forms part of the Stage-II compliance file.