India, Jan. 9 -- Activistsconcerned Forest Advisory Committee recommendation will lead toprivatisation, destruction of forests

The Forest Advisory Committee (FAC) has recommended that private players be allowed to raise plantations to be later used for compensatory afforestation (CA). This has raised concerns among green activists.

Whenever forest land is diverted for non-forestry purposes like mining or infrastructure development under the provisions of the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, an equal area of non-forest land or twice the area of degraded forest land has to be planted over as CA. The idea is to offset the loss of diverted forest cover.

The process starts with the project proponent identifying land for CA and proposing the...