A Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) report tabled in Parliament on Wednesday found that the Green India Mission (GIM) achieved only a fraction of its goals, with forest cover rising by just 0.03 million hectares against a target of 1.4 million hectares for 2015–16 to 2024–25 — a shortfall of 97.57 percent. The report also said improvement in the quality of forest cover was recorded on only 0.11 million hectares, a 91.87 percent shortfall against the same target. Launched in 2014, the GIM aimed to expand forest and tree cover, improve the quality of forest and non-forest lands, and strengthen ecosystem services.
The audit reviewed GIM interventions in 16 states and union territories for which the Environment Ministry had approved physical and financial targets over the past decade. It concluded that “the absence of convergence, central to the implementation strategy of the GIM, was evident across all institutional levels.” The report added that the mission lacked effective alignment with existing programmes such as CAMPA, MGNREGS and other central and state afforestation initiatives.
Financial management emerged as a significant obstacle, the CAG said, and monitoring was weak: 14 states failed to provide required public web links for transparency. Audit evaluations flagged inflated data and overstated achievements caused by non‑validated KML files, and GIS analyses showed that 70 percent of sampled sites had no noticeable changes attributable to the GIM.
The report further noted that, except for Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, no state carried out assessments of carbon sequestration during 2015–2025. Taken together, the findings point to major gaps in coordination, transparency, monitoring and financial oversight that have undermined the mission’s ability to meet its targets and deliver intended ecological benefits.
Original Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/green-india-mission-fell-short-by-98-in-increasing-forest-cover-cag-11912065#publisher=newsstand
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Publish Date: 2026-08-15 01:14:00
