States fall short of the target to improve forest cover, quality

GS Paper 3

Syllabus: Environment, Conservation

Source: TH

 Direction: The article highlights the objectives, achievements and shortcomings of the Green India Mission.

Context: According to data accessed via the RTI, India is lagging behind in the targets to increase the number and quality of tree and forest-cover plantations set in the Green India Mission (GIM).

Background:

• As per the India State of Forest Report-2021, forest and tree cover in the country increased by 2,261 square kilometres 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.
• According to India’s National Forest Policy (1988), at least 33% of the country’s total land area should be covered by forests in order to ensure ecological stability.
• India is tenth in the world in terms of the total area covered by forests, but only 120th in terms of the proportion of that area covered by forests.
• 17 States and Union Territories had more than 33% of their area under forest cover.
• 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%), etc.
• MP had the largest forest cover, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.

National Mission for a Green India/ GIM:

• It is one of the eight Missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) launched in 2014 for a 10 years period with an outlay of Rs 60,000 crore.
• It aims at protecting, restoring and enhancing India’s forest cover and responding to climate change.
• The target under the Mission is –
  • Increasing the forest and tree cover by 5 million hectares (ha) in 10 years.
  • Increasing the quality of the existing forest and tree cover in another 5 million ha of forest in non-forest lands in 10 years.
  • Increasing forest-based livelihood income for about 3 million households in and around these forest areas.
• It is implemented under the overall administrative control of the MoEF&CC and presents a holistic approach to greening that considers –
  • Carbon sequestration goals
  • Maintain diverse ecosystem services (biodiversity, etc) and provisioning services (fuel, fodder, etc)
• Integrated cross-sectoral approach: Implemented on both public and private lands, with local communities playing a crucial part in planning, decision-making, implementation, and monitoring.

Targets under the GIM: From 2015-16 to 2021-22, the Centre had approved a target of increasing tree/forest cover by 53,377 hectares and improving the quality of the degraded forest by 1,66,656 ha.

What are the challenges?

• The GIM is able to achieve only 8% of its plantation target. For example, tree/forest cover had increased by 26,287 hectares and forest quality improved by only 1,02,096 hectares as of December 31, 2022.
• The GIM is grossly underfunded and funds allocated remain underutilised: the Centre had allocated ₹681 crores but only ₹525 crores had been utilised.
• Afforestation was solely for the purpose of boosting tree count, rather than taking into account soil and weather conditions.
• Commercial plantations (like eucalyptus) to enhance green cover, which couldn’t make up for natural forests and was vulnerable to insect infestations because they were monocultures.

InstaCurious:

In its new Nationally Determined Contribution, India pledged to reduce the emissions intensity of its gross domestic product by 45% by 2030, and to get 50% of its electricity from non-fossil fuel-based sources by 2030.

Insta Links:

State of Forest Report 2021

Mains:

Q. Define the concept of the carrying capacity of an ecosystem as relevant to an environment. Explain how understanding this concept is vital while planning for the sustainable development of a region. (UPSC 2019)

Prelims Links: (UPSC 2016)