What happened: CAG finds major implementation gaps in Green India Mission
The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reported major shortcomings in the implementation of the Green India Mission (GIM), a programme focused on improving forest and tree cover for climate mitigation. CAG pointed to inadequate funding, weak coordination with other programmes, monitoring deficiencies, and large gaps in achieving targets for both forest quantity and forest quality.
CAG audited GIM planning, implementation, and monitoring for interventions across 16 States and Union Territories during 2015-16 to 2024-25.
CAG reported that GIM targeted improving forest quality over about 1.4 million hectares, but improvement was recorded on only about 0.11384 million hectares, described by CAG as a very large shortfall.
CAG also reported similar underachievement for increases in forest cover, indicating that outcome shortfalls were not limited to forest-quality improvement.
CAG flagged financial governance weaknesses, including cases where some States and Union Territories did not maintain annual accounts, cases involving unaudited accounts, and cases with discrepancies.
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