Report blames Forest Dept officials for misuse of funds
TNR News Network
Shimla:
A report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has exposed serious irregularities in plantation activities carried out by Himachal Pradesh’s Forest Department. The audit reveals that large-scale afforestation was falsely shown in areas already covered by dense forests, raising questions about the authenticity of the forest drive and pointing to misuse of government funds.
Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu tabled the CAG report in the Vidhan Sabha on Monday. The report covers the period from 2006 to March 2021 and includes audits related to the implementation of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980, between April 2016 and March 2021.
The CAG observed that 47% of the plantation work claimed by the Forest Department was carried out in areas already marked as dense forests, where such activity was not required. Additionally, 83% of the afforestation was conducted outside open or degraded forest land, defeating the core objective of improving forest cover.
In a striking example of negligence, plantation work under the Bajoli Holi Hydropower Project was shifted to new locations without proper site inspection. The department also failed to assess the cost escalation in hydropower projects and did not raise an additional demand of Rs 198.73 crore from user agencies.
Moreover, none of the three major hydropower projects audited had watershed management plans in place, a basic environmental requirement.
Fake upload on e-green watch portal
One of the most startling revelations in the report is the misrepresentation of plantation sites. The CAG found that KML files uploaded on the e-Green Watch portal — meant to provide real-time tracking of compensatory afforestation — falsely listed plantation sites in other states such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Haryana instead of Himachal.
For instance, in 2020, the compensatory afforestation file for the Tanara Bridge-Panvi Road in Seraj was uploaded as a site in Chhattisgarh’s Batoili. Similar discrepancies were found in multiple Kullu projects, where Himachal sites were wrongly mapped to Jharkhand and UP.
Recommendations and accountability
The CAG has recommended:
• Immediate investigation into fund misuse and action against responsible officials.
• Fast-tracking of pending cases under the Forest Conservation Act.
• Accurate and verified data uploads on the e-Green Watch portal.
• Creation of a centralised land bank and database for hydropower projects.
Environmental experts say the findings point to systemic failures. With growing concerns over ecological degradation and climate resilience, the report serves as a stark reminder that accountability in environmental schemes is no less critical than in infrastructure or welfare programmes.
