The NAPCC and the Green India Mission

A real question on this chapter rarely asks whether India has a climate action plan; it asks which of the National Action Plan on Climate Change's eight missions covers a specific activity, and separately, whether a candidate can distinguish the Green India Mission's own numbers (10 million hectares, three million households, 50 to 60 million tonnes of annual CO2 sequestration) from other forestry programmes that also involve afforestation, such as compensatory afforestation under CAMPA. The two missions most often confused, National Mission for a Green India and National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, sit under the same plan but target entirely different land and outcomes, and examiners test exactly that boundary.

The National Action Plan on Climate Change: eight missions

The National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) was released in June 2008, prepared under the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change, which continues to provide strategic direction, review progress and approve the plan's missions. The NAPCC's stated approach rests on a set of principles rather than a single target: protecting the poor and vulnerable through an inclusive, climate-sensitive development strategy; achieving national growth objectives through a qualitative shift that also enhances ecological sustainability; deploying efficient, cost-effective demand-side management and mitigation technologies at an accelerated pace; and engineering new market, regulatory and voluntary mechanisms, including public-private partnerships, to deliver on both adaptation and mitigation. Comprehensive mission documents detailing objectives, strategies, timelines and monitoring criteria were to be submitted to the Council by December 2008, and each mission was to report publicly on its own annual performance.

The plan's core is a set of eight national missions, each institutionalised through the relevant ministry with its own inter- sectoral governance group. Naming all eight precisely, and not substituting a similar-sounding scheme for one of them, is the single most commonly tested fact in this chapter:

1. National Solar Mission: to significantly increase solar energy's share of the total energy mix, while also expanding other renewable and non-fossil options (nuclear, wind, biomass), and to run a dedicated R&D programme for cheaper, more convenient solar technology including storage.
2. National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency: to build on the legal mandate already created by the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 and the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, through new market-based mechanisms, including tradable energy-savings certification for energy-intensive industry, financing mechanisms for demand-side management, and fiscal instruments that promote efficiency.
3. National Mission on Sustainable Habitat: to make habitats sustainable through energy efficiency in buildings (extending the Energy Conservation Building Code), better solid waste and urban waste management, and a modal shift toward public transport in urban planning.
4. National Water Mission: to ensure integrated water resource management, conserve water, minimise wastage, and secure more equitable distribution, including a target of improving water use efficiency by 20% through regulatory and pricing mechanisms.
5. National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem: to evolve management measures for the Himalayan glacier and mountain ecosystem, including understanding the extent of glacial recession, in collaboration with climatologists, glaciologists and neighbouring countries sharing the Himalayan region.
6. National Mission for a "Green India" (the Green India Mission, covered in depth below): to enhance ecosystem services, including carbon sinks, through India's forests.
7. National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture: to make Indian agriculture more resilient to climate change by developing thermal- resistant crop varieties, improving rainfed-agriculture productivity, and building new credit and insurance mechanisms; its National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) implementing scheme, and the specific conservation-agriculture measures it funds, are covered in the sibling note on agriculture and environment and are not repeated here.
8. National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change: to build a knowledge base of the challenges of, and responses to, climate change through funded research, a networked academic ecosystem, a dedicated Climate Science Research Fund, and open, collaborative platforms including international cooperation.

The Green India Mission

The National Mission for a Green India (GIM), one of the NAPCC's eight missions, is the plan's dedicated forestry and ecosystem-services mission, distinct from the compensatory afforestation carried out under CAMPA (covered in the sibling note on forest conservation and governance) in that it is a purpose-built, budgeted Centrally Sponsored Scheme aimed at both expanding and qualitatively improving forest and tree cover, not at offsetting a specific instance of forest diversion.

Mission objectives, as set out in the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change's Mission Document, are fourfold: increase forest and tree cover on 5 million hectares of forest and non-forest land while improving the quality of existing forest cover on another 5 million hectares, a combined treatment area of 10 million hectares; improve ecosystem services, including biodiversity, hydrological services and carbon sequestration, across that same 10 million hectares; increase forest-based livelihood income for about 3 million households living in and around forests; and enhance annual CO2 sequestration by 50 to 60 million tonnes by the year 2020.

The Mission Document breaks its 10-million-hectare target into specific categories, and the precise split is a detail worth holding exactly rather than approximately: qualitative improvement of forest cover and ecosystem in moderately dense forests (1.5 million hectares), open degraded forests (3 million hectares), degraded grassland (0.4 million hectares) and wetlands (0.1 million hectares); eco-restoration and afforestation of scrub, shifting- cultivation areas, cold deserts, mangroves, ravines and abandoned mining areas (1.8 million hectares); bringing urban and peri-urban land under forest and tree cover (0.20 million hectares); and agroforestry and social forestry (3 million hectares). This granular breakdown is what separates GIM from a generic "plant more trees" scheme: over half its area target is qualitative improvement of forest already standing, not fresh planting, which is the opposite of what "afforestation mission" might suggest to an unwary reader.

GIM's governance is decentralised and participatory by design, distinct from a scheme run purely top-down. At the national level it operates as a Society under the Ministry, with a Governing Council chaired by the Minister of Environment and Forests (drawing representation from the Planning Commission, Tribal Welfare, Rural Development, Panchayati Raj, Agriculture and Finance, among others) and a National Executive Council chaired by the Secretary (Environment and Forests), co-chaired by the Director General of Forests, with the Mission Director as Member-Secretary. At the state level, a revamped State Forest Development Agency (SFDA), chaired by the Chief Minister or Forest Minister, acts as the State Mission Directorate. At district level, a revamped Forest Development Agency (FDA) facilitates implementation, linked to the District Planning Committee. At the village level, planning and implementation rest with local institutions such as revamped Joint Forest Management Committees, Community Forest Resource groups, Van Panchayats and other bodies set up by the Gram Sabha, tying GIM's delivery mechanism directly to the same Gram Sabha-centred governance the Forest Rights Act relies on.

On finance, the Mission Document originally costed the full 10-million- hectare, 10-year programme at Rs 46,000 crore (Rs 34,000 crore for core mission activities, Rs 12,000 crore for support activities). When the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) approved GIM as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 20 February 2014, however, it sanctioned a scaled-down 12th Plan-period allocation: a total programmatic expenditure of Rs 13,000 crore envisaged for the 12th Plan, of which the direct Plan outlay was Rs 2,000 crore, funded through a combination of Plan outlay and convergence with MGNREGA, CAMPA and the National Afforestation Programme. The Centre-State sharing pattern for the Plan outlay was fixed at 90:10 for the North Eastern states and 75:25 for the rest. Under this 12th Plan-period approval, the Mission's stated objective was narrower than the full long-term target: increased forest and tree cover, and improved quality of forest cover, across two to eight million hectares, rather than the complete 10 million hectares the original Mission Document envisaged. This gap between the Mission Document's full long-term target and the actually sanctioned 12th Plan allocation is itself a fact worth holding separately, since a question can test either figure and conflating them produces a wrong answer.

Exam angle

This chapter rewards precision over general awareness on two fronts. The first is simply naming all eight NAPCC missions correctly and not substituting a plausible-sounding scheme (the National Afforestation Programme, for instance, is not one of the eight; National Mission for a "Green India" is). The second, sharper trap is GIM's own numbers: questions may test the 10-million-hectare overall target, the 50-to-60 million tonne CO2 sequestration goal, the three-million-household livelihood target, or the finer breakdown by land category, and a careless answer conflates GIM's own budgeted, named mission with the separate mechanism of CAMPA-funded compensatory afforestation, which exists to offset a specific forest diversion rather than to pursue GIM's broader ecosystem-services goal. A subtler trap is the gap between GIM's original Mission Document target (10 million hectares, Rs 46,000 crore) and what the CCEA actually approved as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme in February 2014 (two to eight million hectares for the 12th Plan, Rs 13,000 crore programmatic cost), a distinction between aspiration and sanctioned scheme that a statement question can exploit directly.

Quick revision points

• NAPCC: released June 2008, under the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change. Eight missions: National Solar Mission, National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency, National Mission on Sustainable Habitat, National Water Mission, National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem, National Mission for a "Green India", National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture, National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change.
• GIM mission objectives: 10 million hectares treated (5 m ha new/ improved forest-tree cover + 5 m ha quality improvement); improved ecosystem services (biodiversity, hydrology, carbon sequestration) across that 10 m ha; forest-based livelihood income for about 3 million households; annual CO2 sequestration enhanced by 50-60 million tonnes by 2020.
• GIM 10 m ha breakdown: moderately dense forest quality improvement (1.5 m ha), open degraded forest (3 m ha), degraded grassland (0.4 m ha), wetlands (0.1 m ha), eco-restoration/afforestation of scrub, shifting cultivation, cold desert, mangrove, ravine and mining areas (1.8 m ha), urban/peri-urban tree cover (0.20 m ha), agroforestry/ social forestry (3 m ha).
• GIM governance: national Governing Council chaired by the Union Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change; National Executive Council chaired by Secretary (E&F); State Forest Development Agency at state level (chaired by CM/Forest Minister); Forest Development Agency at district level; JFMCs/Gram Sabha bodies at village level.
• GIM approval and cost: original Mission Document costed the full programme at Rs 46,000 crore over 10 years. CCEA approved GIM as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 20 February 2014, with a 12th Plan programmatic cost of Rs 13,000 crore (Plan outlay Rs 2,000 crore), sharing pattern 90:10 (North East) / 75:25 (rest of India), and a narrower 12th Plan target of two to eight million hectares.
• GIM is distinct from CAMPA: GIM is a standalone, budgeted mission pursuing ecosystem services and carbon sequestration across degraded forest and non-forest land; CAMPA funds compensatory afforestation tied specifically to forest land diverted for non-forest use (see the forest conservation and governance note for CAMPA's own fund structure and ratios).

Hold GIM's original 10-million-hectare target and its actually sanctioned 12th Plan figure as two separate facts, not one, since that gap is exactly where a careless answer goes wrong.