Curation Team
GURUGRAM: Developers who plant trees in the city’s Matri Van will now be able to earn green credits, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav said on Thursday. Matri Van spans about 750 acres in the Aravalis. The project was launched as a “memory forest” where organisations and companies could plant saplings in the name of loved ones or under CSR. Until now, it was a symbolic, voluntary effort. With the new announcement, plantations raised here can generate credits, similar to carbon credits, that may be sold or used against future environmental obligations.
Yadav added that if plantations in degraded land achieve 40% crown cover within five years, they will qualify as green credits. This will be applicable across the city.
The Green Credit Programme, introduced in Oct 2023, is designed to attribute market value to a wide array of eco-restoration activities, including water conservation, sustainable agriculture, waste management and afforestation. Each initiative generates credits based on specific performance metrics, such as tree survival rates, the areas restored or resources conserved.
Officials have announced that detailed guidelines for Matri Van-linked credits will be released soon, outlining baseline criteria for tree survival and independent verification processes. In Haryana, efforts have been made to promote forest patches across various districts to boost green cover in the Aravalis and Shivaliks.
The policy, however, raises uncomfortable questions: should a natural forest landscape like the Aravalis, already shrinking under construction and mining, be treated as a site for private credit claims? Environmentalists said this policy in Aravalis can open a backdoor for developers and compromise the region’s ecological integrity while producing “paper green” gains on credit ledgers.
They also said sites for green patches are located in forest areas that require ecological restoration, not token plantation drives. “Developers may see this as an opportunity to carry out plantations in the Aravalis, but in effect, it could become a way to tighten their hold over forest land under the guise of compliance,” said Col SS Oberoi (retd), an environmentalist.
Critics argued the move could lead to a form of land capture, where forest patches are branded or controlled by private entities in the name of planting trees. “If industries and developers are going to carry out plantation in the Aravalis, then what will be the job of the forest department?” said Vaishali Rana, an environmentalist, adding that while the govt is promoting the scheme as a green opportunity, for the Aravalis, it risks becoming another move that prioritises compliance numbers over genuine conservation.
Monoculture or fast-growing plantations, according to activists, can be ecologically damaging in semi-arid zones like the Aravalis, which is a natural barrier against desertification and a groundwater recharge zone. The concept of “green credits” is flawed when applied to an ecologically sensitive region, they said.
“Planting trees is not enough. What matters is if they survive beyond three to five years, and whether local species are used. Also, in the Aravalis, there is no need to carry out plantations. What really is required is to cordon off the area and leave it undisturbed, and regeneration will occur in the area which is ideal for Aravalis to grow,” said Sunil Harsana, an ecologist and wildlife expert.
