Massive Implementation Gaps Exposed by CAG in the Green India Mission

Gist - The Comptroller and Auditor General CAG has exposed severe operational breakdowns in the Union government's Green India Mission GIM , highlighting an alarming 90% shortfall in afforestation and ecosystem-restoration targets . - Driven by chronic underfunding and a total failure to converge with existing welfare and ecological schemes like MGNREGS , the mission's decade-long underperformance threatens to derail India's climate commitments. - This audit perfectly demonstrates how bureaucratic silos and fiscal bottlenecks at the domestic level can severely compromise our international Paris Agreement pledges. Background - The Green India Mission GIM was conceived in 2010 and officially rolled out in 2014 by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change MoEFCC . - It operates as one of the eight core missions anchoring the National Action Plan on Climate Change NAPCC . Rather than just planting trees, GIM is designed for holistic ecosystem restoration —enhancing biodiversity, securing water resources, and improving forest-based livelihoods. - Before this audit, GIM was positioned as India's primary domestic engine to achieve its Nationally Determined Contribution NDC under the Paris Agreement. Its grand…