Green India Mission document submitted to PM council
By IANSTuesday, October 12, 2010
NEW DELHI - The environment ministry has submitted the final draft of the National Mission for a Green India (GIM), part of the country’s plan to fight climate change, to the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change, officials said Tuesday.
The mission, one of the eight under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, aims at increasing the capacity of India’s forests to absorb green house gases to 6.35 percent of the country’s total emissions by 2020.
The draft of the Mission projects an ambitious target of 20 million hectares of forest cover by 2020, at a cost of Rs.46,000 crore (Rs.460 billion).
According to Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh, the overarching objective is to increase forest cover in 5 million hectares and improve the quality of forest cover in an area of corresponding size.
“It proposes a fundamental shift in mindset from our traditional focus on merely increasing the quantity of our forest cover, towards increasing the quality of our forest cover and improving provision of ecosystem services,” Ramesh said.
The Mission will be implemented through an autonomous organisational structure reducing red-tape and rigidity, while ensuring accountability.
The mission also aims at monitoring additional parameters like ground cover, soil condition, erosion and infiltration, run-off, and ground water levels to develop water budgets as well as biomass monitoring indicators.
