CAG audit finds Green India Mission achieved barely a tenth of target

A performance audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General has found that the Green India Mission, a scheme meant to restore India's forests, achieved almost nothing it set out to do over a decade. The mission improved forest quality on only 0.11 million hectares against a target of 1.4 million hectares, less than a tenth. On expanding forest cover, it reached only four per cent of the goal.

The CAG also noted that the mission's intended convergence with other schemes such as the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme never materialised. The Green India Mission was one of eight pillars of the 2008 National Action Plan on Climate Change and the instrument through which India promised the Paris Agreement an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes by 2030.

The Hindu reports that the mission has effectively been replaced by a tree plantation drive called 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam', launched in 2024. The government reports planting 140 crore saplings, but the India State of Forest Report 2023 shows only 156 sq km of the gain of 1,445 sq km in green cover is true forest. The rest is tree cover outside recorded forests, with dense canopy inside forests thinning into scrub.