Green India Mission: Forest Restoration Beyond Tree Plantation

GS III: Conservation, environmental pollution and degradation.

Context: A CAG performance audit of the Green India Mission (GIM) has highlighted major implementation gaps, with the mission achieving only 0.11 million hectares of forest-quality improvement against a 1.4 million hectare target. The findings underline the distinction between tree plantation and genuine forest restoration.

Green India Mission

• Institutional Framework: One of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, launched in 2008.
• Core Objective: Enhance forest quality, biodiversity, ecosystem services, water security and carbon sequestration.
• Climate Significance: Supports India’s commitment to create an additional 2.5–3 billion tonnes of carbon sink by 2030.
• Ecological Approach: Focuses on restoration of degraded ecosystems, rather than merely increasing the number of trees.

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Key Findings of the CAG Audit

• Forest-Quality Improvement: Only 0.11 million hectares improved against the 1.4 million hectare target.
• Forest-Cover Expansion: Mission achieved only around 4% of its intended target.
• Weak Convergence: Intended convergence of GIM with CAMPA and MGNREGA/VB-G RAM G did not materialise effectively.
• Implementation Deficit: Significant gap exists between mission objectives, resource utilisation and actual ecological outcomes.
• Institutional Priority: GIM appears to have lost policy momentum despite its long-term ecological and climate objectives.

Tree Plantation vs Forest Restoration

• Plantation-Centric Approach: Government reports around 140 crore saplings planted under ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ since 2024.
• Forest Cover Reality: India State of Forest Report 2023 recorded a 1,445 sq km increase in green cover, but only 156 sq km constituted actual forest.
• Tree Cover Outside Forests: Around 1,289 sq km of the increase came from tree cover outside recorded forests.
• Quality Concern: Increasing tree numbers do not necessarily indicate improvement in forest density, biodiversity or ecosystem health.
• Core Lesson: More trees do not automatically mean more forests.

Aravallis- A Case Study of Ecological Restoration

• Degradation: The Aravallis face mining, encroachment and invasive Prosopis juliflora (vilayati kikar).
• Green Wall Approach: Large-scale plantation is being promoted to restore degraded landscapes.
• Limitation: Planting trees cannot by itself reverse mining damage, remove encroachments or recreate complex native ecosystems.
• Ecological Principle: Restoration is not landscaping; it requires recovery of native biodiversity, ecological processes and ecosystem functions.

Why Forest Restoration Matters

• Biodiversity: Natural forests provide habitats for flora and fauna that plantations may not replicate.
• Carbon Sequestration: Healthy forests provide more sustainable carbon storage and sequestration.
• Water Security: Forest ecosystems support groundwater recharge, watershed protection and hydrological regulation.
• Soil Conservation: Native vegetation reduces soil erosion and land degradation.
• Climate Resilience: Diverse ecosystems are more capable of adapting to climate variability and extreme events.
• Livelihoods: Forest-dependent communities benefit from non-timber forest produce, ecosystem services and sustainable livelihoods.

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Major Concerns

• Quantitative Bias: Success is increasingly measured through saplings planted and hectares covered, rather than ecological outcomes.
• Forest Degradation: Existing forests may continue to experience canopy loss, fragmentation and biodiversity decline despite rising tree cover.
• Invasive Species: Plantation without ecological planning can encourage non-native or invasive species.
• Weak Convergence: Fragmented implementation across GIM, CAMPA and rural employment programmes reduces effectiveness.
• Protection Deficit: Restoration cannot succeed without addressing mining, encroachment and habitat fragmentation.
• Outcome Measurement: Conventional audits can measure funds and hectares, but ecological restoration requires broader indicators of forest health and ecosystem functionality.

Way Forward

• Shift to Restoration: Move from sapling-centric programmes towards ecosystem-based forest restoration.
• Prioritise Natural Regeneration: Encourage natural regeneration and native species wherever ecological conditions permit.
• Outcome-Based Monitoring: Measure canopy density, biodiversity, soil health, water availability, carbon sequestration and ecosystem resilience.
• Strengthen Convergence: Integrate GIM, CAMPA and VB-G RAM G through common landscape-level restoration plans.
• Protect Existing Forests: Give equal priority to preventing deforestation, mining, encroachment and fragmentation.
• Landscape Approach: Restore entire ecological landscapes such as the Aravallis, rather than relying only on isolated plantation drives.
• Community Participation: Involve local communities, Gram Sabhas and Joint Forest Management institutions in restoration and monitoring.
• Scientific Restoration: Use native species, ecological mapping, remote sensing and long-term monitoring to assess restoration outcomes.

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Conclusion

India must move from “counting trees” to “restoring forests.” The success of the Green India Mission should ultimately be judged not by the number of saplings planted, but by the recovery of biodiversity, ecosystem services, carbon sinks and forest health, thereby aligning ecological restoration with India’s climate commitments and sustainable development goals.

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