Government tree plantation schemes in India 2024

       Based on the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Agroforestry Research Institute estimates agroforestry to cover about 25 million. Agroforestry is a traditional practice in India. It is a sought-after land-use system due to its contribution to livelihoods, nutrition, energy, and environmental security. Trees outside forests increase the country’s tree cover and enhance ecosystem services; it also meets the bulk of the country’s demand for wood. State’s government initiated various schemes to encourage tree plantation in the states few are mentioned here :-

Mukhyamantri Jan Van Yojana

To maintain environmental balance in the state of Jharkhand, it is necessary to increase the forest covered area. By promoting tree plantation on private lands to increase the forest covered area in the state, the pressure on the notified forests of the state can be reduced along with increasing the income source of the farmers. To achieve these objectives, it is proposed to implement “Mukhyamantri Jan Van Yojana” in the state. Under this scheme, the person having proper ownership as per the revenue records will voluntarily plant trees of the species prescribed by the department on his personal land (block plantation or linear plantation on the ridge of the field). As an incentive, 75 percent of the expenditure incurred on tree plantation and its maintenance will be reimbursed by the department.

objectives of the plan

The scheme has the following objectives:-

• Maintaining environmental balance by increasing the green area of ​​the state.
• To conserve ground water through tree plantation.
• To reduce pressure on notified forests by promoting forest produce production in private sectors.
• To increase the income of farmers by planting trees on their land.
• To increase forest cover in the state with public cooperation.

Components of the Scheme :

• Under this scheme, block plantation and plantation on the boundary of the field (linear) can be done.

• Work description – The implementation of the scheme will be completed in three years, in which the following works related to plantation will be done by the beneficiary year-wise at his own expense:-

First year – digging pits, making protective fence, planting saplings, giving fertilizer / organic manure / pesticide, irrigation and protection etc.

Second year – fertilizer irrigation work and protection work.

Third year – fertilizer irrigation work, fencing repair and protection work.

• Distance between two plants- For planting woody species on private land, pits of size 30cm x 30cm x 30cm will be dug and the distance between two pits will be 3m x 3m and on the ridge 2m x 2m. For fruitful plants, pits of size 60cm x 60cm x 60cm will be dug and the distance will be 5m x 5m. 445 plants of woody species and 160 plants of fruitful species can be planted in one acre. If 445 plants of woody species are planted on the ridge, it will be considered equivalent to one acre.
•  Fruitful plants will not be planted on the ridge. Species prescribed for plantation- (a) Fruitful species- Grafted mango, jackfruit, guava, amla, bael, sapota, pear, nakh (babbugos), grafted mulberry, badhar and litchi. (b) Wood species – Sheesham, Black Sheesham, Teak, Gamhar, Mahogany, Clonal, Eucalyptus, Acacia, Arjun, Asan, Bija, Kaj, Salai Dhora (Ghavda) Khair, Kusum, Jamun, Neem, Hare, Baheda.
• The beneficiary will be responsible for the protection of the planted saplings.

• Under this scheme, the minimum limit of plantation for a beneficiary will be 0.5 acres and the maximum limit will be 50 acres.

Incentive amount payable to beneficiaries?

• As per the approved plantation rate for this scheme, 75% of the cost amount will be payable to the beneficiary as incentive amount.

• As per the plantation rate fixed by the department, the following expenditure will be incurred for planting fruit and wood species per acre:-

Fruit species in the financial year 2022-23 (incentive amount payable per plant)
Year	As per total rate	Incentive amount payable per plant to the beneficiary (except trenches)	Incentive amount payable per plant to the beneficiary (including trenches)
1st year	180.31	135.23	162.05
2nd year	24.40	18.30	18.30
3rd year	33.90	25.43	25.43
Total	238.61	178.96	205.78

Wood species in the financial year 2022-23 (incentive amount payable per plant)
Year	As per total rate	Incentive amount payable per plant to the beneficiary (except trenches)	Incentive amount payable per plant to the beneficiary (including trenches)
1st year	44.34	33.26	42.33
2nd year	15.86	11.89	11.89
3rd year	19.52	14.64	14.64
Total	79.72	59.79	68.86

Further details regarding this scheme covered https://janvan.jharkhand.gov.in/scheme.aspx

Krishi Aranya Protsaha Yojane [KAPY]

This scheme was launched by Karnataka government it includes growing trees with agricultural crops in bunds or boundaries, either intercropping or along the water bodies. This scheme offer farmers to grow 400 forest tree species per hectare on his land and incentives are given to encourage farmers. The registration of this scheme is done by near forest office by providing bank details. After this seedlings provided to the farmers in the subsidized rates as per the government.

The rates fixed by the government are :

• 5” × 8” and 6” × 9” size seedling Rs. 1/- per seedling
• 8” × 12” size Rs. 3/- for each seedling
• 10” × 16” and 14” × 20” sixe Rs. 5/- for each seedling

            Rs. 30,Rs. 30 and Rs. 40 per seedling is paid as a incentive to the farmers in first, second and third cut per plant for each plant.  Other then incentive farmer also get retuens from seedlings when it get matured.

Hamara ped hamara dhan

Government of Uttarakhand started an scheme in which an incentive for planting sapling of fuel, fruit and woody species on private land at the rate of Rs. 300 per plant in a year paid by the state forest department based on the survival of the plant. The beneficiary will receive the amount for 3 years. Only 100 plants per applicant family will be allowed .

Any person having domicile of Uttarakhnad is eligible for this scheme having registered land in his name area of land is not an issue. Application form of the scheme can be obtained free of cost by divisional forest office or website https://forest.uk.gov.in/.

The application form includes name, address, ownership status, status of the area, plant species of the interested species. The application form will be submitted to the Divisional Forest Officer office of the concerned area and a contract will be signed with the applicants on a stamp paper of Rs 10/-.

After that the applicant will purchase the saplings at concessional rates from the Forest Department, Horticulture Department or elsewhere like registered women’s nurseries, farmers’ nurseries etc. The applicant will take the plants to the site at his own expense. Technical assistance can be taken from the Forest Department for planting trees. It is the responsibility of the applicant himself to plant saplings and protect them.

After three years of planting of saplings, the percentage of survival of healthy saplings will be evaluated by joint inspection of village head, sarpanch of the concerned forest panchayat, forest range officer and representative of the revenue department. Payment of funds by the Forest Officer will be based on the number of plants found healthy/alive in the inspection report.

Van mitra scheme

The Van Mitra scheme is an initiative by the government to encourage community participation in tree plantation activities on non-forest lands. Recognizing the critical role of green cover for a healthy environment and the shortfall in forest areas in Haryana, this scheme aims to involve local communities directly in enhancing tree cover across the state. By leveraging the support of 7500 local volunteers from economically weaker sections, the scheme envisions fostering a culture of environmental guardianship and personal commitment towards tree planting and care.

Objective :– The motive of this scheme is to promote tree plantation and increase green cover in non-forest areas.

Operational Procedure

 1. Public Awareness:

The scheme will be given large publicity through print and visual media and the website of the forest department.

 2. Identification of Eligible Families:

The eligible families/persons having an annual income of less than 1.8 lakh will be identified from data of Parivar Pehchan Patra (PPP) maintained by the Citizens Resources Information Department (CRID) and intimation of eligibility for participation in the scheme will be given to the families through various measures. Through this message, the stakeholders will be made aware of the process of registration on the Van Mitra portal/ mobile app. of the scheme.

3. Registration:

The eligible families will register one eligible member (age between 18 to 60 years) of the family on Van Mitra mobile app. The information on the number of saplings to be planted subject to a maximum of 1000 saplings will be given at the time of registration by the family member. Amongst the registered applicants, priority will be given to the family having a lower income and the applicants of younger age.

 4. Land Identification:

The Van Mitra will arrange the land for plantation.

2 5. Training: Van Mitras will be provided basic training on plantation techniques and protection measures. They will also be provided training on the Van mitra mobile app.

Implementation timeline and activities
	1st year
1.	February/March	Registration, selection and training.
2.	By 10th June	Completion of pit digging for plantation
3.	July 1st to August 15th	Plantation period.
4.	By August 31st	Completion of plantation verification and geo-tagging
5.	September to April	Maintenance and protection of plantation.
2nd, 3rd and 4th Year
Maintenance and protection of plantation

Honorarium
1st year
	Last Week of June	Rs. 20 per dug-up pit on geo-tagging and uploading of photographs of the pits by Van Mitra on the mobile app.
	Last week of July and August	Rs. 30 per planted sapling after geo-tagging of planted sapling by the Van Mitra
	Last week of Months from September onwards:	Rs. 10 per surviving sapling for maintenance and protection of plantation.
2nd  Year		Rs. 8 per surviving sapling in the last week of every month.
3rd year		Rs. 5 per surviving sapling in the last week of every month.
4th year		Rs. 3 per surviving sapling in the last week of every month.

Basic implementation guidelines of Scheme

 • The saplings to be planted under the scheme will not be the short rotation species like eucalyptus and poplar planted under agro-forestry. Further, only saplings of tree species will be planted.

• The minimum plant-to-plant distance will be eight meters.

• The Van Mitra will select the non-forest land for plantation anywhere in the village, town or city of his residence. In case the plantation is done on land not belonging to Van Mitra, he will hand over the plants to the owner of the land after completion of four years of plantation to the owner of the land and the owner will then take care of the plant as his property. An honorarium of Rs. 25 per handed-over plant will be given to the Van Mitra. In case the planted tree is on the land of Van Mitra himself, he will be deemed to be the owner of the tree and further incentives hereinafter will be admissible to him as the owner of the tree. An agreement will be signed between Van Mitra and the owner of the land to the effect that the owner will not fell the tree for at least 10 years. In case the owner of the tree retains the tree till the tree attains the age of 75 years, the Government may consider giving an honorarium of an amount equivalent to the basic rate of Rs. 100 in the year 2024. Also, such trees will be recognized under the State Government Scheme of Pran Vayu Devta and the custodians will get honorarium admissible under the scheme of Pran Vayu Devta for taking care of the tree.

Role and responsibility of Van Mitra

 • To identify and arrange land required for plantation. In case the land identified for the plantation is not in the ownership of the Van Mitra, he will obtain permission from the owner in writing.

• To dig pits required for plantations and further carry out plantations in the pit and take their care as per specifications contained in the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

• To ensure good survival of plantations.

Sub-Mission on Agroforestry (SMAF)

           (i) Background :-The SUB-MISSION ON AGRO-FORESTRY (SMAF) is a scheme started by Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India under National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) in year 2016-17 with a focus to enhance income of farmers and also to diversify land use from agriculture to agro-forestry to certain extent. This scheme is operational since Year 2016-17 with funding pattern 60:40 as GOI: State Govt. basis. Under this scheme, farmers are to be given financial assistance by way of direct benefit transfer through their Aadhar linked saving bank accounts based on the plants planted in their agricultural field and their survival.

        (ii) Implementation area:-The scheme is being implemented throughout the state of   Punjab, which means that farmers residing in more than 12581 villages of Punjab are eligible for financial assistance under this scheme.

• The agro-forestry schemes and incentives of Gujrat

The following schemes are implemented to promote agroforestry in the state.

 (i) Quality planting stock (clonal and tissue culture plants): Gujarat Forest Department has taken initiatives in 2010 to establish high quality seedlings production centres at over a dozen sites to increase productivity and yield of wood in agroforestry. A tissue culture lab for production of teak seedlings has been established at Gandhinagar. About ten centres for clonal Ecucalyptus and three sites for conal Casuarina plant production have become operational in 2011 and the capacity of these centres is to produce about 10 million clonal plants for agroforestry, which are supplied to farmers at concessional rates.

(ii) Supply of seedlings: About 90 million seedlings were supplied annually at nominal charges under Van Mahotsav programme, and about half of them were planted by the farmers on their lands and the rest was distributed among industries, institutions, cooperatives, schools, individuals and other such sectors.

(iii) Rehabilitation of degraded farm land: Forest Department supports small and marginal farmers to take up plantation on their lands, especially degraded lands. During the last decade, on an average, about 9,500 ha of the farm lands are planted every year at the cost of the Government. In addition to the cost of plantation, assistance is also provided for three years as a part of subsidy.

 (iv) Farm forestry in Dangs: A scheme to raise teak plantation on tribal’s land was implemented in the Dangs district. This scheme has been modified in 2012. Under this scheme, tree crop will be raised on the tribal’s land at the cost of the Government and a provision for adequate assistance every month has been kept for the farmer for twenty years. Objective of the scheme is to restore tree cover on the private lands.

 (v) Farm forestry under MNAREGA: A new scheme of raising 400 trees per hectare on farm land using MNAREGA fund has been initiated in 2011. Subsequently, this scheme has been accepted by the Government of India as a part of individual beneficiary scheme under MNAREGA. About 11,000 ha is proposed under this scheme in 2012 which may be scaled up subsequently to over 20,000 ha/year.

(vi) Farm forestry extension activities: Farmer camps (shibirs) to transfer technology and also to promote farm forestry have been organised in every district. Annually, about 750 farmer camps are conducted in the state.