India's compensatory afforestation efforts need reset, accountability

Poor implementation and data gaps hinder India's push for ecological balance

A news item in the Delhi edition of the Times of India on December 3, 2024, stated the National Green Tribunal (NGT) had taken suo motu cognizance of a report by Global Forest Watch, which pointed out India had lost 2.3 million hectares of forest cover since 2000. That amounted to 6 per cent of tree cover. This “would be almost 15 times the size of Delhi!”

 

While much of this alarming reduction would be attributed to all-round development efforts, it would also be necessary to point out that India has “Compensatory Afforestation” (CA) policies in place. The question, therefore,