T N GODAVARMAN THIRUMPULPAD Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IT is an undisputed fact that the forest in this country is an important and vital component to sustain the life support system on this planet For various reasons, our forest is being slowly depleted At the same time, as part of our developmental activities, some areas of the forest have to be used for non-forest purposes The economic development shall not be at the cost of complete degradation of the forest or the environment and eco-system provided by the green area of the forest Therefore, it was considered whether the user agency of such land which is required for developmental activities to compensate for the diversion of the forest and on the recommendations of the Central empowered Committee (hereinafter being referred to as "cec", it was decided by this court that the user agency shall be required to make payment of net present value (NPV of such diverted land so as to utilize this for getting back in the long run which are lost by such diversion A scheme was submitted by ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF alongwith an affidavit dated 22 3 2002 The cec considered all relevant aspects including the scheme submitted by MOEF and filed a report on 9 8 2002 These reports were accepted by this Court This Court in T. N. Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India [jt 2006 (4 SC 454 , 2006 (1 SCC 1] finally directed that the question as to what amount of NPV is required to be paid and to achieve these objectives, it was directed that the question is to be examined by experts A committee comprising of three experts including Mrs Kanchan Chopra was appointed and this Court gave the following directions -

(2.) ON the basis of the directions issued by this Court, a Committee consisting of Mrs kanchan Chopra gave a report and the same was examined by the CEC

(3.) THE net present value per hectare of forest has been fixed based on this data. For calculating the average net percent value per hectare of forest in India, the following monetary value of goods and services provided by the forest have been considered :-