Of the 647 agencies granted funds, only 20 complied with procedures, says PAC report

More than 500 voluntary agencies have disappeared after receiving part payments for afforestation projects funded by the National Afforestation and Eco-Development Board, which works under the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Of a total of 647 agencies granted funds by the Board, a mere 20 complied with the relevant procedures, according to the 2011-12 report of the Public Accounts Committee, which reviewed the Ministry's performance.

Only 54 organisations received all three instalments of the grants, while 269 disappeared after receiving the first instalment and 246 defaulted after the second.

The report notes that indiscriminate exploitation of the natural resources to meet the ever-increasing development needs, as well as the uncontrolled growth of urbanisation, industrialisation and population explosion, were adversely impacting the environment.

The report, tabled in Parliament on Friday, points out that only seven defaulting agencies were blacklisted by the government and First Information Reports filed against them. An FIR was lodged against only one erring officer. “The Committee is shocked that public money was looted in the name of afforestation, and little tangible effort was made by the government to book the defaulters. Surprisingly, in the whole chain associated with the screening and monitoring of the grants sanctioned to voluntary agencies, only one officer was held responsible,” it says.

To track down the defaulting/spurious agencies, the Committee has recommended that the Ministry take the assistance of all banks through which the money was routed and also the help of the State governments to establish the identity of their office-bearers and beneficiaries.

It has also expressed concern at the indiscriminate use of agricultural pesticides and the use of Diclofenac as cattle feed, and their effect on fauna and flora. The members say they have been disturbed by the vanishing population of vultures and the disappearance of sparrows and blackbucks from many parts of the country.

“Also of equal concern is uprooting and displacement of people of the Kolleru Lake in Andhra Pradesh,” the report says, recommending that the government commission an empirical study of the vanishing species of fauna and the causes, and to suggest corrective measures.