A draft mission document of the National Mission for Green India has been released by the government. The draft aims at increasing forest cover across the country to serve as 'carbon sinks' removing green house gases.

The mission’s objective is to increase green house gas removal by India's forests to 6.35 percent of the country's total emissions by 2020.

One of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC), The Green India Mission (GIM) acknowledges the influences that the forestry sector has on environmental amelioration though climate mitigation, food security, water security, biodiversity conservation and livelihood security of forest dependant communities.

'Recognising that climate change phenomena will seriously affect and alter the distribution, type and quality of natural resources of the country and the associated livelihoods of the people, the mission aims at addressing climate change by enhancing carbon sinks, adaptation of vulnerable species and forest dependant local communities in the face of climatic variability,' the draft mission says. 

This will be done through increasing and restoring the forest cover all over the country. It also aims at monitoring additional parameters like ground cover, soil condition, erosion and infiltration, run-off, ground water levels to develop water budgets as well as biomass monitoring indicators.

The Mission will be finalised after a series of public consultations to be undertaken across the country starting June 11.