http://JUDIS.NIC.IN SUPREME COURT OF INDIA Identified high and very high erodability area - 52,204 ha Completion of CAT carried out till date - 40,486.4 ha Balance area to be treated under CAT - 11,717.6 ha Balance area in Direct Draining [under forest] - 3,670.6 ha The target for the area remaining to be treated as per the CAT in high and very high erodability area will be achieved by September 2003 and with the completion of the remaining area treatment of the catchment under Direct Draining will be completed. As regards low and medium erodability category actions have been initiated by the Government of U.P. and an action plan has been formulated for treating such areas out of 10,000 hectares of forest area and 3,500 hectares of non-forest area. This would be in addition to 52,204 hectares as per the 1998 CAT plan. The project authorities have completed compensatory afforestation on 4516 hectares nonforest land in the Districts of Jhansi and Lalitpur and the Government of Uttaranchal has proposed to treat the said areas by taking up the catchment areas under densification, fuel wood plantation and restoration of degraded forests. The present status in this regard is that the Catchment Area Treatment was under implementation by the State Forest Department in the catchment of high and very high erodability classification based on the earlier CAT plan formulated by the State Forest Department under which an area of 22,746 hectares was treated upto March 1994. Subsequently, it was decided to treat only the direct draining catchment of high and very high erosion class based on the satellite images. Accordingly, a CAT Plan, 1994 was formulated and submitted to MoEF for treatment of an additional catchment area of 13500 hectares in addition to area earlier treated, i.e., a total area of [22746+13500] equivalent to 36246 hectares. MoEF, however, directed in July 1998 that 52204 hectares of high and very high erosion classification, in the entire catchment, was to be treated at the cost of Tehri Project. This requirement was incorporated by the Government in its decisions on the HRC recommendations. As decided by the Government, the project is now doing CAT in the entire degraded catchment in area of high and very high erosion class after excluding the areas already treated. An area of 37591.4 hectares has already been treated till December 2001. The soil conservation measures are being implemented as part of the CAT Programme for upgrading the environment of the region. The remaining area is proposed to be treated by 2002-2003. The CAT Programme is presently being implemented by the Government of Uttaranchal. Command Area Development : Command Area Development primarily aims to avert the problems of water logging and emergence of salinity. This is very important in maintaining the environmental balance. Union government fixes the responsibility on the State of UP to finalize the command area plan and to furnish the same to the Union Ministry of Power for onward submission of the same to the Ministry of Environment and Forests. Quoting the affidavit filed by the State of Uttaranchal that "...the Government of UP submitted Command Area Development Plan (CADP) which was formulated by the Ministry of Power was forwarded to MoE in July 1998. The MoE desired CADP be revised by GOUP incorporating information on cropping pattern and ground water. The revised CADP, is in process by Government of UP..." The Command Area Development Plan was submitted by the Government of U.P.to MoEF in July 1998 and the modification of the Plan was suggested by MoEF is under process. It is submitted that the existing canal networks will be utilised to irrigate extended cultivable command are of 2.7 lac hectares and stabilize existing irrigation in 6.04 lac hectares. Flora and Fauna : HRC Report points out the scantiness in the studies carried out by Page 14 of 37