JUDGMENT:- It is an undisputed fact that the forest in this country is an important and vital component to sustain the life support system on this planet. For various reasons, our forest is being slowly depleted. At the same time, as part of our developmental activities, some areas of the forest have to be used for non-forest purposes. The economic development shall not be at the cost of complete degradation of the forest or the environment and eco-system provided by the green area of the forest. Therefore, it was considered whether the user agency of such land which is required for developmental activities to compensate for the diversion of the forest and on the recommendations of the Central Empowered Committee (hereinafter being referred to as "CEC"), it was decided by this Court that the user agency shall be required to make payment of net present value(NPV) of such diverted land so as to utilize this for getting back in the long run which are lost by such diversion. A scheme was submitted by Ministry of Environment and Forests(MOEF) alongwith an affidavit dated 22.3.2002. The CEC considered all relevant aspects including the scheme submitted by MOEF and filed a report on 9.8.2