Green India Mission

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News? 
• What is National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)?
• What is National Mission for a Green India? 
• News Summary
• State of the Forest Report – 2021

Why in News?  

• Against the target of increasing tree cover by around 53,000 hectares, only around 26,000 ha has been achieved. 
• Similarly, forest quality improved in only 1.02 lakh ha against target of 1.6 lakh ha.

What is National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC)? 

• The Central government, in 2008, had launched the country’s first National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) outlining existing and future policies and programs addressing climate mitigation and adaptation.
  • Climate change mitigation means avoiding and reducing emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere to prevent the planet from warming to more extreme temperatures.
  • Climate change adaptation means anticipating the adverse effects of climate change and taking appropriate action to prevent or minimise the damage they can cause, or taking advantage of opportunities that may arise.
• There are 11 national missions forming the core of the NAPCC.
  • Originally, there were 8 core missions. Later, in October 2022, 3 new missions were added to the list.
• These 11 missions represent multi-pronged, long term and integrated strategies for achieving key goals in climate change.

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What is National Mission for a Green India?

• The N ational Mission for a Green India or the commonly called Green India Mission (GIM), is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC).
• It aims at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s forest cover and responding to Climate Change.  
• The target under the Mission is 10 million ha on forest and non-forest lands for increasing the forest/tree cover and to improve the quality of existing forest.
• It envisages a holistic view of greening that extends beyond tree planting. 
• GIM focusses on multiple ecosystem services such as biodiversity, water, biomass, preserving mangroves, wetlands, critical habitats etc. along with carbon sequestration.
• GIM also aims at convergence with complementary schemes and programmes for better coordination in developing forests and their fringe areas in a holistic and sustainable way. 
  • A multidisciplinary team, both from Govt. and NGOs, are mandated to facilitate planning and implementation at cluster/landscape unit level.

News Summary

• From 2015-16 to 2021-22, the Central government – based on submissions from 17 States – had approved a target of increasing tree/forest cover by 53,377 hectares and improving the quality of degraded forest by 1,66,656 ha. 
• However, in response to an RTI query, the Environment Ministry responded, with figures from 17 States, noting that the tree/forest cover had increased by 26,287 hectares and forest quality improved in only 1,02,096 hectares as of December 31, 2022.
• For executing these projects, the Central government had allocated Rs 681 crore but only Rs 525 crore had been utilised, the Ministry revealed.

State of the Forest Report – 2021

• As per the India State of Forest Report-2021, forest and tree cover in the country increased by 2,261 square kilometre since the last assessment in 2019. 
• India’s total forest and tree cover was 80.9 million hectares, which accounted for 24.62% of the geographical area of the country. 
• The report said 17 States and Union Territories had more than 33% of their area under forest cover. 
• Madhya Pradesh had the largest forest cover, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra. 
  • The top five States in terms of forest cover as a percentage of their total geographical area were Mizoram (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%), Meghalaya (76%), Manipur (74.34%) and Nagaland (73.90%).

Q1) What is the definition of Forest Cover in India?

The forest cover is defined as ‘all land, more than one hectare in area, with a tree canopy density of more than 10 percent irrespective of ownership and legal status. Such land may not necessarily be a recorded forest area. It also includes orchards, bamboo and palm’.

Q2) What is Climate Change Mitigation?

Climate change mitigation is action to limit climate change by reducing emissions of greenhouse gases or removing those gases from the atmosphere.

Source: States fall short of targets to improve forest cover, quality | Economic Times | indiascienceandtechnology.gov.in