The first phase of the ambitious Green India Mission (GIM) which aims at increasing forest cover by five million hectares by 2020, will be considered by the Cabinet on Thursday. The Cabinet will take up the first phase of the mission, which is worth R13,000 crore for the 12th five-year Plan period (2012-17), said environment and forests minister Veerappa Moily on Wednesday. However, since two years of the current Plan period are almost over, the proposed fund has the provision of one year spillover in the 13th Plan period.
The government intends to increase forest cover by 10 million hectares in the next 10 years at a cost of R46,000 crore. It has two components ? quality improvement of forest cover and creating new forest cover ? which are to be implemented through various measures including decentralisation of forest governance.
This comes at a time when Moily has been both praised as well as criticised for rushing through green nods for many projects.
?There are well-laid procedures and we are not hastening through those. We have fast tracked everything without compromising on the norms. There are no unbaked or immature decisions,? Moily said.
He also clarified that he had not received any letter from the coal ministry to assess the feasibility of grant of forest clearances (stage II) with regard to 10 coal blocks allocated to companies like Hindalco, JSPL, Tata Steel and Essar Power before the next meeting of the inter-ministerial group on coal blocks. The ministry is giving the status of environment and forest clearance of 61 coal blocks.
On the issue of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh favouring genetically modified crops, the environment minister said that the matter is with the Supreme Court and an affidavit is being finalised along with the agriculture ministry.
