As India strives to balance economic growth and sustainable development, forests have become a crucial part of the national climate conversation. The revised Green India Mission (GIM) aims to restore 25 million hectares of degraded forest and non-forest land by 2030, which is essential to achieving India’s climate pledge of creating an additional carbon sink of up to 3.39 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent by 2030. However, the quality of restoration is just as important as the quantity of land restored. A study by IIT Kharagpur found that despite an increase in forest cover, the photosynthetic efficiency of dense forests across India has declined by 12% due to rising temperatures and drying soil.
The revised GIM builds on the progress made between 2015 and 2021, when the Mission supported afforestation across 11.22 million hectares. The new blueprint expands its focus to include biodiversity-rich landscapes and aims to link efforts with other government programs. However, the challenge lies in turning policy into practice, and India’s afforestation story has long been hindered by three gaps: community participation, ecological design, and financing.
Community participation is crucial, as nearly 200 million Indians depend on forests for their daily survival. The Forest Rights Act (2006) empowers them to manage and protect their landscapes, but many plantation drives bypass these communities, ignoring their claims and consent. Ecological design is also essential, as monocultures of eucalyptus or acacia have been shown to be ecologically damaging. The revised GIM promises a shift towards native, site-specific species, which is encouraging.
Financing is another significant bottleneck, with the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund holding ₹95,000 crore, yet utilization is inconsistent. Some states are experimenting with new financing tools, such as carbon credits and biochar programs. To move forward, India needs to empower communities to lead, provide forest departments with the skills and incentives to prioritize ecological restoration, and enhance accountability through public dashboards that track progress.
Despite the hurdles, India has the building blocks to succeed: strong legal frameworks, sizeable financing pools, institutional capacity, and promising local models. What’s needed is alignment and a shared effort between communities, forest departments, the central government, and civil society. By pursuing restoration with rigor, inclusion, and foresight, India can reshape how the world thinks about restoration and achieve its climate goals. The path to restoring 25 million hectares is not easy, but it could have a significant impact on the country’s future and the world’s approach to environmental conservation.