A blueprint of Green India mission, which seeks to enhance the country's forest cover, will be submitted to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh next week, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said on Friday.
Ramesh said his ministry, which held consultations with various stakeholders, is in the last stage of finalisation of the Green India Mission.
Asserting that it will not be business as usual, Ramesh said the mission 'will be a different model of greening through involvement of locals, elected bodies and entrepreneurs'.
The Green India Mission in one of the eight missions announced by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change.
It aims to expand forest cover from 23 per cent to 33 per cent in the country and afforestation of six million hectares of degraded forest land.
The blueprint will be submitted to the prime minister for his approval next week, Ramesh said.
Apparently concerned over developmental projects eating away forests, the minister said that Green India mission cannot become a success 'if we go on de-greening. De-greening is not sustainable growth.
"It's time that instead of giving weightage to fiscal sustainability as we have been doing so far, we should talk about ecological sustainability," the Union minister said.
Ramesh was addressing a tiger symposium in New Delhi.
About 400,000 lakh hectares of land has been brought under forest cover in last 10 years. In the next 10 years, under Green India Mission, it is planned to double this achievement.
He also pointed out that joint forest management committees can play an important role in increasing the forest cover.
"JFMC has to be made accountable and owned by Gram Sabhas so that community has its stake in the forests," Ramesh said.
