Green India Mission (GIM)

About the Mission

Introduction

The National Mission for Green India (GIM) is one of the eight Missions outlined under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). It aims at protecting; restoring and enhancing India’s diminishing forest cover and responding to climate change by a combination of adaptation and mitigation measures. It envisages a holistic view of greening and focuses on multiple ecosystem services, especially, biodiversity, water, biomass, preserving mangroves, wetlands, critical habitats etc. along with carbon sequestration as a co-benefit. This mission has adopted an integrated cross-sectoral approach as it will be implemented on both public as well as private lands with a key role of the local communities in planning, decision making, implementation and monitoring.

Mission Goals

• To increase forest/tree cover to the extent of 5 million hectares (mha) and improve quality of forest/tree cover on another 5 mha of forest/non-forest lands;
• To improve/enhance eco-system services like carbon sequestration and storage (in forests and other ecosystems), hydrological services and biodiversity; along with provisioning services like fuel, fodder, and timber and non-timber forest produces (NTFPs); and
• To increase forest based livelihood income of about 3 million households.

Sub-Missions

The following five submissions, integrating adaptation/mitigation measures and one intervention under the National Mission for a Green India are given below:

• SM-1: Enhancing quality of forest cover and improving ecosystem services
• SM-2: Ecosystem restoration and increase in forest cover
• SM-3: Enhancing tree cover in Urban & Peri-urban areas (including institutional lands)
• SM-4: Agro-Forestry and Social Forestry (increasing biomass & creating carbon sink)
• SM-5: Restoration of Wetlands
• Intervention: Promoting alternative fuel energy and livelihood support to households (biogas, solar devices, LPG, biomass-based systems, improved stoves)

Convergence

Green India Mission hinges upon convergence with related Missions of the National Action Plan on Climate Change, other complementary National Mission Programmes and schemes for better coordination in developing forests and their fringe areas in a holistic and sustainable manner. The convergence aims at optimizing efficient use of resources and avoidance of contrast activities which can disturb the balance in the ecosystem due to lack of coordination between different schemes.

The Convergence Guidelines of GIM with MNREGS and CAMPA have been issued to ensure a synergized approach. Further, the efforts are on to finalize convergence guidelines with other complimentary schemes to set out the approach for coordination at field level and to address the challenges being faced in environment, forest and wildlife sector thereby contributing to ecological security in the context of climate change.