GIM slated to support 30 lakh families in 10 years

Maharashtra government’s recently launched Green India Mission (GIM) is slated to support 30 lakh families and employ 2 lakh youngsters over the next decade. Being one of the eight integral missions of National Action Plan on Climate Change (NACC), GIM’s main mission is to increase the national forest cover by 50,00,000 hectare and improve the quality of the same.

Officials from the forest and revenue department confirmed that GIM will be interlinked with various environment-related government programmes. It will stress more on enhancing the natural beauty of forests rather than conventional tree plantation programmes. GIM will also focus on enhancing the ecosystem of existing 49,00,000 hectare forest cover which includes 15,00,000 hectare marginally dense forests, 30,00,000 hectare open forests and 4,00,000 hectare grasslands. Officials confirmed that the most prolific part of the programme was to offer better employment opportunities to 30 lakh families that were dependent on the environment for their daily bread and butter.

Another important aspect of GIM was creating employment opportunities for two lakh youngsters across the state, including adivasis and tribal residents. These “Harit Swayamsevaks” will act as link between the forest department and residents for a range of activities scheduled by the state government. “The youngsters will undergo skills development programmes. They will work for security and conservation of forest cover. At the same time, they will become an important link between residents and the forest department for implementation of programmes,” said an official.

While the forest and revenue department will be the regularising and monitoring authority for GIM, a 12-member committee, headed by the chief minister of the state will look over functioning of the programme. The committee will also have a forest minister, minister of state for forests, principal secretary (forests) and principal chief conservator of forests and other senior officials from the forest department.