Conservation, Environmental Pollution and Degradation, Environmental Impact Assessment.
Why it Matters?
The revised Green India Mission (2021–2030) adopts a micro-ecosystem approach to restore degraded landscapes like the Aravallis and Western Ghats, aiming to enhance forest cover, biodiversity, and carbon sinks in line with India's climate commitments.
What You Should Know?
Mission Type: The Green India Mission (GIM) is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).
Launch Year: Launched in 2014 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
Aim: Aims to tackle climate change via carbon sink enhancement, and adaptation of ecosystems and forest-dependent communities.
Tree Cover Objective: Seeks to increase forest/tree cover on 5 million hectares and improve forest quality on another 5 million hectares.
Ecosystem Services: Enhances biodiversity, hydrological services, and carbon sequestration across 10 mha of treated land.
Livelihood Goal: Targets increased forest-based livelihood income for 3 million forest-dependent households.
CO₂ Sequestration Target (2020): Aimed to enhance annual CO₂ sequestration by 50–60 million tonnes by 2020.
Revised Period: The revised GIM document for 2021–2030 focuses on restoring vulnerable landscapes using micro-ecosystem approaches.
New Focus Areas: Emphasizes restoration of Aravallis, Western Ghats, Indian Himalayan region, arid zones of NW India, and mangroves.
Landscape Approach: Restoration includes native species plantations, and soil and moisture conservation for land degradation neutrality.
Carbon Sink Commitment (NDC): Aims to create 2.5–3 billion tonnes of additional CO₂ sink through restoration and afforestation.
FSI Estimate (2025): The Forest Survey of India (FSI) projects total carbon sink potential of 3.39 billion tonnes via restoration of 24.7 mha.
Convergence Implementation: Executed in convergence with MGNREGA, CAMPA, and the National Afforestation Programme (NAP).
Implementation Status: Around 11.22 million hectares were covered under plantation between 2015–16 and 2020–21.
Degraded Regions Focus: Western Ghats restoration addresses deforestation, illegal mining, pollution, and groundwater depletion.