NEW DELHI: A year after notifying rules for disbursement of funds from a special kitty for increasing green cover across the country, the Centre on Thursday released Rs 47,436 crore to 27 states. Odisha, Chhattisgarh , Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra bagged more than half the amount.A corpus totaling Rs 55,000 crore had accumulated through compensation payments by user agencies for diverting forest land for non-forest purposes such as industry, mining and infrastructure over the years. The quantum of payout indicates the extent of diversion of forest land for development activities.The states will use these compensatory afforestation amount for plantations, assisted natural regeneration of forests, forest fire prevention, pest and disease control in forest, soil and moisture conservation works, catchment area treatment and improvement of wildlife habitat among others in the list of 24 permissible activities.States were allocated the amount from the compensatory afforestation fund management and planning authority (CAMPA), an ad hoc body set up in 2001 in compliance of Supreme Court orders, to manage compensatory afforestation funds. The fund has been subject to prolonged litigation in the Supreme Court which was earlier concerned about the use of the funds till the government set up a National Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority.The list of 27 states, which received money on Thursday, do not include Nagaland and erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir. “The fund being transferred would be in addition to state budget for forests. It is expected that all states will utilise this fund towards forestry activities to achieve the objectives of the India’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) of increasing its forest and tree cover,” said environment minister Prakash Javadekar after handing over cheques to states’ forest ministers.The NDCs are climate action plan of India under the Paris Agreement on climate change. As per its 2015 commitment under the Agreement, India is expected to create an additional carbon sink equivalent to 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by the year 2030.Urging states to use the fund only for increasing green cover, Javadekar said, “This fund cannot be used for salaries, travelling and other allowances to regulate contractual and casual employees of the state forest departments.”Though a legislation - Compensatory Afforestation Fund (CAF) Act - to utilise the CAMPA money was passed by Parliament in July 2016, it could not be implemented in absence of rules and adequate mechanisms. A small part of fund had, however, been disbursed in the past three years, under a Supreme Court order, from the initial kitty of over Rs 66,000 crore.After notification of the CAF Rules and required approval from the Supreme Court in January, an amount of Rs 54,685 crore from ad-hoc CAMPA had been brought under the control of the central government. After disbursal of the states’ share, the remaining amount will be used by the Centre for afforestation and related activities.“The ad-hoc CAMPA has now become a permanent central authority. Similarly, the states have now state-level authorities,” said Union environment secretary C K Mishra. These authorities will monitor the works to be carried out using the compensatory afforestation fund.