Milan (AsiaNews) – An audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), India’s supreme public audit body, has shone a spotlight on the results of the Green India Mission, one of the eight ‘missions’ set out in the National Action Plan on Climate Change and launched in 2014.
Its main objectives include the protection and restoration of ecosystems, increasing forest cover through reforestation and, above all, carbon sequestration. The plan also aims to improve the quality of vegetation, conserve biodiversity and strengthen the livelihoods of communities dependent on forest resources. According to the CAG, the funds have been used inefficiently and the mission’s results ‘remain questionable’.
The report highlights poor planning and serious shortcomings in implementation and monitoring. The figures speak for themselves: of the 2.8 million hectares planned, reforestation work covered around 0.15 million hectares – just 5 per cent of the total area.
The CAG also found that the activities carried out were not only insufficient but had undermined one of the mission’s main objectives: the restoration of ecosystems at the landscape level. “Planting activities focused exclusively on areas of low vulnerability, whilst the ecologically most critical landscapes – despite having been identified by numerous studies and being present in several Member States – were neglected,” the report states.
The CAG’s findings are the result of an investigation carried out across 15 Member States and one EU territory over a ten-year period, from 2015 to 2025. Numerous critical issues have emerged: a lack of coordination between the bodies involved, a lack of transparency and poor data quality.
These shortcomings have compromised the implementation of the plan, leading in some cases to measures being taken in areas already densely vegetated, whilst more than half of the rural areas identified have been excluded. The investigation also found inconsistencies in the registers of several states, with incorrect data on the number of trees and forest cover. In Uttarakhand, for example, the Dabala Sagwa Tok site was recorded as having 2,000 trees, but the CAG found only between 30 and 40, none of which had survived.
In Odisha, on the other hand, work was carried out in “dense forests with a density of between 40 and 70 per cent”, areas which are therefore unsuitable for new planting activities. Another major shortcoming concerns transparency in the use of funds.
In Mizoram, in the north-east of the country, the audit identified a case of alleged embezzlement. The authorities had allocated 91 million rupees, approximately 800,000 euros, for reforestation projects. Although the entire sum was drawn down, the CAG found no evidence to confirm that it had actually been used.
The report highlights the government’s difficulties in meeting its climate targets, particularly in light of the commitments made under the Paris Agreement. In 2025, a target was set to create, by 2035, a carbon sink capable of absorbing between 3.5 and 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide. However, according to the CAG, the states have not yet launched specific initiatives in this direction, with the exception of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.
According to experts, India’s strategy centred on ‘green cover’ is insufficient and risks neglecting other aspects of environmental protection. “We must move away from this one-dimensional view that everything is about green cover. What is planted and where it is planted has a huge impact,” says Pooja Choksi, founder of the environmental consultancy Ficus Research Consulting.
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