183ha of forest diverted over past 5 years: Centre in RS

Panaji: Union govt said that 183ha of forest area in Goa was diverted for non-forest purposes between April 2021 and Oct 2025. In a reply in the Rajya Sabha, junior environment minister Kirti Vardhan Singh said that the land was diverted for 34 different projects.

These projects include an airport, road widening, power substation, power transmission line, and railway double tracking. In recent years, Goa diverted 15.6ha of forest for the Kulem-Madgaon railway track doubling. Goa also proposed the expansion of 53m of the Goa-Belagavi highway by felling 7,774 trees, even as the highway passes through the ecologically-sensitive zone of the Bhagwan Mahaveer Wildlife Sanctuary.


In the Rajya Sabha reply, the minister said that over the last five years, Goa carried out compensatory afforestation on an area of 1,209ha against its target of 1,330ha, as compensation for the diverted forest land.

Compensatory afforestation is carried out by states to compensate for the loss of forest and its ecological services due to the diversion of forest land for various non-forest purposes as per the provisions of the Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act, 2016. The compensatory afforestation target and funds for states are approved by the National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (Campa).

“Monitoring of plantations raised under compensatory afforestation is carried out as per the procedures laid down in the CAF Act, 2016, and rules made thereunder by Campa, ensuring transparency, accountability, and effective oversight,” said the minister.

A 2021 report by the Delhi-based Legal Initiative for Forest and Environment showed that Goa, the country’s tiniest state with an area of 3,702sqkm, diverted nearly 150ha of forest land. It was the third highest area to be diverted behind Arunachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which are 23 and 66 times Goa’s size, respectively.

When it comes to the diversion of forest land for any linear project—road, rail, power, or water—Goa is among the top 10 in the country, according to the report.