A compensatory reforestation program delivered under the CAMPA framework for the Tamil Nadu Tourism Development Corporation, restoring native dry deciduous forest across 150 acres at Vedasandur.

Compensatory afforestation is frequently executed as a planting count — a target number of saplings, a photograph, a completion certificate, and a site that quietly reverts within three seasons. We treat it as an ecological restoration project that happens to carry a statutory obligation, because the obligation is discharged properly only if the forest actually establishes.

The design is matched to the Dindigul dry zone: native species selection weighted to drought-hardy local provenance, soil and moisture conservation structures ahead of planting, assisted natural regeneration wherever rootstock survives, and protection through the vulnerable early years. Survival is monitored by geo-tagged stem census across defined intervals rather than asserted at handover, and the site carries a multi-year maintenance and replacement commitment.