{"id":65287,"date":"2026-01-28T18:16:51","date_gmt":"2026-01-28T12:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/?p=65287"},"modified":"2026-01-29T13:25:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T07:55:39","slug":"paper-industry-easing-forest-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/28-01-2026\/paper-industry-easing-forest-rules","title":{"rendered":"India\u2019s Paper Industry Push for Easing Forest Rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Syllabus: GS2\/ Governance, GS3\/ Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Context<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&amp;CC) notified amendments to the <strong>Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 2023<\/strong>, formerly the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Background<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>According to 2023 guidelines forest land leased for commercial purposes attracted:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Net Present Value (NPV) payments:<\/strong> A one-time charge reflecting the economic value of ecosystem services lost due to diversion of forest land.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Compensatory Afforestation (CA) obligations: <\/strong>Mandatory afforestation undertaken to compensate for diverted forest land.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Plantation of medicinal plants was treated as a <strong>non-forest activity<\/strong>, requiring prior Union approval.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>What are the New Rules?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Commercial plantations <\/strong>are now legally classified as <strong>&#8220;forestry activities&#8221;<\/strong> under the amended Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvadhan) Adhiniyam, 2023.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Exemption from Levies: <\/strong>Entities undertaking these plantations are no longer required to pay<strong> Net Present Value (NPV) or undertake mandatory compensatory afforestation.<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Simplified Approvals:<\/strong> Plantations that align with state-approved &#8220;Working Plans&#8221; and are supervised by forest departments do not require prior central government approval.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Leasing to Private Entities:<\/strong> The central government can specify terms and conditions for leasing forest land to private companies for plantation purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Why the Paper Industry Pushed for Easing Norms?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Domestic wood availability<\/strong> in India is estimated at around <strong>nine million tonnes per year.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Current demand stands at approximately <strong>eleven million tonnes<\/strong> per year, impacting domestic paper production and increased input costs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Rising Dependence on Imports: <\/strong>Despite being the <strong>third-largest paper producer<\/strong> globally, India&#8217;s imports of paper have increased sharply particularly from ASEAN countries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Underutilised Capacity in the Paper Sector:<\/strong> India has around 900 pulp and paper mills, of which only about<strong> 550 are operational.<\/strong>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The inadequate access to raw materials has prevented mills from operating at optimal capacity.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Environmental Concerns<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Environmental groups caution that;\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Commercial plantations <strong>may not replicate the ecological functions <\/strong>of natural forests.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Monoculture plantations<\/strong> can adversely affect biodiversity, soil health and water availability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The amendment raises questions about the <strong>balance between ease of doing business and ecological safeguards.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table class=\"has-background has-fixed-layout\" style=\"background-color:#fff2cc\"><tbody><tr><td><strong>India\u2019s Paper Industry<\/strong><br>&#8211; India\u2019s Paper Industry accounts for about <strong>5%<\/strong> of the world\u2019s production of paper.<br>&#8211; The mills use a variety of raw material viz. <strong>wood, bamboo, recovered paper, bagasse, wheat straw<\/strong>, etc.\u00a0<br>a. In terms of share in total production, approximately 18-20% is based on wood, 74-76% on recycled fibre and 6-8% on agro-residue.<br>&#8211; <strong>Over 90 percent <\/strong>of wood is currently sourced from agroforestry and farm forestry, not from natural forests.<br>&#8211; Approximately <strong>500,000 farmers <\/strong>are engaged in growing plantation species such as eucalyptus, poplar, subabul, casuarina and acacia across about <strong>1.2 million hectares.<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Way Ahead<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Commercial plantations should be restricted to degraded and open forest lands, avoiding ecologically sensitive areas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Strong monitoring and ecological safeguards are needed to prevent monoculture-driven environmental harm.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Agroforestry and recycled fibre use should be further promoted to reduce pressure on forest land.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.downtoearth.org.in\/forests\/access-open-why-indias-paper-industry-wants-forest-rules-eased\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>DTE<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><strong> Context <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEF&#038;CC) notified amendments to the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 2023, formerly the Forest Conservation Act, 1980. <\/li>\n<p><\/p>\n<p><strong> Background <\/strong><\/p>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> According to 2023 guidelines forest land leased for commercial purposes attracted: <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Net Present Value (NPV) payments: A one-time charge reflecting the economic value of ecosystem services lost due to diversion of forest land. <\/li>\n<li class=\"ms-5\"> Compensatory Afforestation (CA) obligations: Mandatory afforestation undertaken to compensate for diverted forest land. <\/li>\n<p><a href=\" https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/28-01-2026\/paper-industry-easing-forest-rules \" class=\"btn btn-primary btn-sm float-end\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-affairs"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65287"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65341,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65287\/revisions\/65341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}