Refuting the stand by analysts that this year’s Union Budget proposals made no additional allocations for environment, Union environment minister Harsh Vardhan on Tuesday said there is actually an increase in all the major programmes of the ministry.

As against expectations raised by the Economic Survey, which gave much importance to environment, mainly climate change and air pollution, the budgetary allocation for the Union Environment Ministry for 2018-19 is Rs 2,675.42 crore ~ identical to last fiscal’s Budget allocation.

However, Union finance minister Arun Jaitley, in his Budget speech, raised the issue of rising air pollution in Delhi and adjoining states and announced a special scheme to address the issue and to subsidise machinery required for institutional management of crop residue. The ministry had got an increase of nearly 19 per cent in the 2017-18 Budget.

Iterating the Union government’s commitment to afforestation and increasing the green cover, Vardhan listed out at an interaction with the media, the various schemes where the allocation had been raised. He said for a restructured National Bamboo Mission, an outlay of Rs 1,290 crore has been made to promote bamboo sector in a holistic manner. The government has removed bamboo grown outside forest areas from the definition of trees.

He said Rs 160 crore has been earmarked for the Green India Mission (National Afforestation Programme), which marks an increase of 48.8 per cent over the previous allocation.

The Green India Mission will contribute to the Nationally Determined Contribution (under the Paris Agreement on climate change) for the period 2021-2030 to help achieve India’s commitment to sequester additional 2.5-3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent in the forestry sector by the year 2030. “This year’s Budget has also allocated Rs 67.50 crore for Eco-Task Force, a whopping 125 per cent increase,” Vardhan stated.

The minister also pointed out that an initiative has been drawn up to tackle the challenges posed by Climate Change. The plan envisages planting 1,000 crore saplings over a period of 10 years (2021-30). The plantation will be carried out under programmes like CAMPA, Green India Mission, National Afforestation Programme, as well as plantation along highways and railway tracks.

Highlighting the importance of spreading awareness, Vardhan said the total allocation for the Environmental Information Systems (ENVIS) in Budget 2018-19 is Rs 24 crore, which marks a 33 per cent increase, compared to 2017-18, out of which the training courses under Green Skill Development Programme (GSDP) will be funded.

A recent initiative under the ENVIS scheme for skilling the youth, an estimated 80,000 people will be trained during 2018-19. A total of 5.6 lakh people will be trained during 2018-21, he added.