Revised Green India Mission plan: Centre to focus on Aravalli, Western Ghats restoration

Indian Express

4 hours ago

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change will focus on restoration of vulnerable landscapes like Aravallis and Western Ghats mountain ranges, along with mangroves and Indian Himalayan region, as per the revised Green India Mission (GIM) document.
Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav released the revised document for 2021-2030 period at Jodhpur Tuesday, at an event marking the World Day to Combat Desertification and Drought.
The revised document stated that a 'micro-ecosystem' approach will be adopted to make interventions in the vulnerable landscapes like Aravallis, Western Ghats, arid regions of North West India, mangroves and the Indian Himalayan region.
The National Mission for a Green India was launched in February 2014 by the UPA government and is one of the eight core missions under India's National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). GIM's main objective is to protect, restore, and enhance India's forest and tree cover, using a blend of climate adaptation and mitigation strategies. One of the core objectives of the mission was to increase forest and tree cover on 5 million hectares of forest and non-forest land and improve the quality of forest cover on another 5-million hectares.
The revised mission document also projected, based on estimates of the Forest Survey of India (FSI), that India could achieve a carbon sink of 3.39 billion tonnes, from the combination of all restoration activities. This will require an increase in forest and tree cover over an estimated 24.7 million hectares.
As part of its commitments under the Nationally Determined Contribution, the National Mission for Green India aims to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent through additional forest and tree cover. This is planned through restoration of open forests, tree plantation on wastelands, and plantations along railway lines and national highways, among other places.
As per FSI's estimates, the largest potential of creating additional carbon sinks lies in the restoration of forests which have impaired in the last 15 to 20 years, along with restoration of open forests, agroforestry.
India's net forest cover had increased only by 156.41 square kilometres between 2021 and 2023, as per the 2023 state of India's forest report. The country recorded loss of old growth forest, mangrove cover and saw a decline in forest cover across the Western Ghats, the report had said.
Vulnerable landscapes like Western Ghats, the document said, will be restored through regionally conducive best practices for holistic landscape management including planting of native tree species, with high carbon sequestration potential. There would also be soil and moisture conservation activities to achieve land degradation neutrality.
The Western Ghats eco-system, the document said, has degraded due to extensive deforestation, felling of trees and illegal mining of minerals. This has caused extensive pollution, worsening of air and water quality, depletion of groundwater and increased human-wildlife conflict.
The mission's interventions were started in the year 2015-16 and about 11.22 million hectares of area could be included under plantations till 2020-21, as per the revised document.
An award-winning journalist with 14 years of experience, Nikhil Ghanekar is an Assistant Editor with the National Bureau [Government] of The Indian Express in New Delhi. He primarily covers environmental policy matters which involve tracking key decisions and inner workings of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. He also covers the functioning of the National Green Tribunal and writes on the impact of environmental policies on wildlife conservation, forestry issues and climate change.
Nikhil joined The Indian Express in 2024. Originally from Mumbai, he has worked in publications such as Tehelka, Hindustan Times, DNA Newspaper, News18 and Indiaspend. In the past 14 years, he has written on a range of subjects such as sports, current affairs, civic issues, city centric environment news, central government policies and politics. ... Read More