Apathy in acquiring Field Firing Ranges for Indian Army
There are 52 FFRs which are non-operational since they have not been re-notified by the State Governments. With the enactment of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, as amended in 1989 and the Supreme Court Order dated Oct 30, 2002, the State Governments are insisting on payment of cost of Compensatory Afforestation (CA) and Net Present Value (NPV) for re-notifying the FFRs since use of forest land as FFR has been classified as a non-forestry activity by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF).
MoEF was requested in August, 2005 to take up the matter with the concerned authorities in the various states for immediate re-notification of 19 FFRs without pre-payment of CA and NPV so that the Army could conduct its necessary training and field firing. MoEF had stated in October, 2005 that for the purpose of compensating or restricting possible adverse impact on environment, CA was being insisted upon according to the guidelines and the rules framed under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980 and the said Act would be applicable only on the actual impact area of the FFR and not the entire area. MoEF had advised the Army authorities to place the case of FFRs for exemption from payment of NPV before the Expert Committee constituted by the Supreme Court. This has been done and is being followed up.
At present, 40 notified and 12 acquired Field Firing Ranges (FFRs) are available to the Army for training and field firing.
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