PM makes afforestation plan, Govt forgets it

GREEN PLAN CAUGHT IN RED TAPE: Bureaucrats are yet to implement the PM's Afforestation Programme.

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New Delhi: August 15 has come and gone but the Government seems to have forgotten that it was supposed to launch a major afforestation programme that day.

"The Government will launch a green India campaign on August 15. This is a major programme for increasing the green cover." This what the PM’s Media Advisor, Sanjaya Baru, had said.

Manmohan Singh approved the plan, called the Prime Minister's Afforestation Programme, but that didn’t speed up matters. The Prime Minister’s Office says a Cabinet note has already been circulated and the plan will be implemented in two weeks.

That will be none too soon, for India is losing its green cover rapidly. In between 2001 and 2003, India lost 26,000 sq. km. of forest cover. Scientists say at this rate India may lose all its forests in 30 years. India's forest cover is about 20 percent, and the goal is to reach 33 percent by 2012.

"The Government is now going to commit substantial resources to for this programme, and I hope they will a follow a very novel approach," says R K Pachauri, of the National Council for Climate Change.

The Prime Ministers Office says money is no problem and an amount of Rs 5,000 crore has been set aside for the programmme initially.

But the challenge for India lies not just in increasing forest cover. Greenhouse gas emissions are on the rise, leading to increases in temperature across the world. According to a widely quoted report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change, world temperatures could rise between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees centigrade in this century leading to catastrophic consequences.

India has to invest around Rs 7,000 crore annually just for achieving its 2012 afforestation target. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s programme will just be a step in solving India’s environmental crisis.