Shortfall in Green India Mission due to poor financial planning: CAG report

A recent Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report has revealed significant shortfalls in the implementation of the Green India Mission (GIM), a flagship initiative under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC). The report, tabled in Parliament on August 12, attributes the failures to poor financial planning and weak alignment with existing state and Central schemes.

The GIM, which aims to enhance India's tree and forest cover while improving their quality and ecosystem services, fell short of its targets across 16 states and Union territories. For instance, the mission targeted the improvement of forest cover quality over 1.4 million hectares, but achieved improvements in just 0.11384 million hectares, a 91.87% shortfall. Similarly, forest cover expansion was observed in only 0.03409 million hectares against a target of 1.4 million hectares, a 97.57% shortfall.

Moreover, the report highlighted the absence of convergence among various government schemes, such as CAMPA, MGNREGS, and others, which hinders the mission's implementation. This lack of coordination was evident even in the selection of landscapes, with low or moderate vulnerability areas receiving priority over those more vulnerable to climate change impacts.

The audit also pointed out that only six out of 68 sampled Annual Plans of Operation (APOs) were received and approved on time by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. This poor coordination resulted in a funding shortfall, with only ₹1,149.14 crore (47.88%) of the ₹2,000 crore approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs received during the 10-year implementation period.