National Green Highways Mission

The government recently launched the initial plantation drive on 1,500 km of National Highways at a cost of about Rs 300 crore under the National Green Highways Mission.

Background:

The government, in September 2015, flagged off its Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification and Maintenance) Policy 2015. The policy aims to help the environment, help local communities, and generate employment by planting trees along all the highways in the country.

Key features:

• The vision of the policy is to provide dignified employment to local people and communities.
• Under this policy, every year 1% of the total cost of highway projects will go to the Green Highways Fund. That works out to around Rs.1,000 crore every year.
• The policy’s objectives include developing a framework for the plantation of trees along highways, reducing the impact of air pollution and dust, providing shade on glaring hot roads during summer, reducing the impact of noise pollution and soil erosion, preventing the glare from the headlights of oncoming vehicles, and generating employment.
• The Policy envisages a strict system of auditing whereby money will be released by the government to the empanelled agencies only if they have achieved a survival rate of 90% the previous year.
• The implementation and progress of plantation will be monitored via images by Indian Space Research Organisation or ISRO and audit will involve modern information technology tools.
• According to the policy, contracts for greening will be given to NGOS, agencies, private companies and government organisations with proven track record in the past in the field. Those selected will be responsible for the survival and health of trees and will be strictly monitored by a body appointed by the ministry.
• The target for the first year is to cover 6,000 km of highways.

Benefits:

• The greening project has a huge potential to generate jobs and can prove to be a game-changer for agriculture and rural economy. It is estimated that greening of one km of highway provides employment to ten people.
• The community will gain in terms of huge employment opportunities and entrepreneurship development.

Also, the afforestation is expected to help in sequestering approximately 12 lakh mt carbon annually.