History

CAMPA Act or Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act is an Indian legislation that seeks to provide an appropriate institutional mechanism, both at the Centre and in each State and Union Territory, to ensure expeditious utilization in efficient and transparent manner of amounts released in lieu of forest land diverted for non-forest purpose which would mitigate impact of diversion of such forest land.

In 2002, the  Supreme Court of India observed that collected funds for afforestation were underutilized by the states and it ordered for centrally pooling of funds under Compensatory Afforestation Fund. The court had set up the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (National CAMPA) to manage the Fund. In 2009, states also had set up State CAMPAs that receive 10% of funds form National CAMPA to use for afforestation and forest conservation. However, in 2013, a CAG report identified that the funds continued to be underutilized. The Compensatory Afforestation Fund Act 2015 was introduced by the government in Lok Sabha on May 8, 2015 to regulate collected funds. The act was sent for examination under a standing committee. It was passed by Rajya Sabha on 28 July 2016.