India restored 21.76 mn hectares of land between 2011-2020: Bhupender Yadav

In 2015, India had pledged to restore 13 Mha of degraded and deforested land by 2020, with an additional 8 Mha by 2030

Published on: Jun 18, 2026, 10:45:33 IST

By Jasjeev Gandhiok

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India has managed to bring 21.76 million hectares (Mha) of land under restoration efforts, against the 26 Mha target for 2030, the country’s second progress report on the Bonn Challenge released by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Wednesday stated.

Launched in 2011, the Bonn Challenge is a voluntary global restoration pledge. (Image sourced from Getty)

The report was released by Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav, who said the progress demonstrates the convergence of policy commitment, scientific innovation and public participation, which can make environmental restoration an effective pathway towards sustainable development.

“Around 21.76 million hectares of land has been brought under restoration efforts against the target of restoring 26 million hectares by 2030 under the Bonn Challenge. India has consistently advanced sustainable land management as a Party to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD),” the minister said, while addressing an event in the national Capital.

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Launched in 2011, the Bonn Challenge is a voluntary global restoration pledge. In 2015, India had pledged to restore 13 Mha of degraded and deforested land by 2020, with an additional 8 Mha by 2030.

The first progress report, released in 2018, had revealed that 9.8 million hectares of land had been brought under restoration. A year later, at COP 14, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a revised target of restoring 26 Mha by 2030.

To gauge progress, countries use a restoration barometer of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which includes policies, institutional frameworks, financial flows, technical planning and monitoring systems necessary for forest landscape restoration (FLR). Outcomes of FLR in terms of land area brought under restoration, and the corresponding climate, biodiversity, and socio-economic benefits from restoration are also included in assessing progress.

Telangana, at 4.18 Mha, leads the restoration efforts, the latest report found, followed by Madhya Pradesh (3.78 Mha), Odisha (2.64 Mha), Gujarat (1.73 Mha) and Andhra Pradesh (1.61 Mha).

“All 28 states and 7 Union Territories (UTs) reported their progress in accordance with the Restoration Barometer and collectively succeeded in bringing 21.76 million hectares of land under restoration,” the report said.

Yadav said greening and restoration activities have been undertaken across around 170,000 hectares under the Green India Mission, while afforestation has been carried out over around 320,000 hectares through CAMPA-supported activities during the past five years.

The minister also said that Joint Forest Management covers about 81.53 Mha and remains one of the largest community-based forest management systems in the world. He added that more than 121,000 hectares have been brought under agroforestry, while bamboo plantations have been established outside forests over nearly 60,000 hectares.

Referring to the PM’s “Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam” campaign, Yadav said more than 266 crore saplings have been planted across the country already, adding that the Aravalli Green Wall Initiative has emerged as an important landscape-level restoration programme and surpassed its annual targets during the financial year 2025-26.

He added that a target has been set to restore 54,000 hectares of mangrove area by 2028 under the Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes (MISHTI) programme too.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jasjeev Gandhiok
Jasjeev Gandhiok is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times, where he covers environment, climate change, the clean energy transition and wildlife at the National Bureau. Gandhiok has over a decade of experience in journalism and is based in Delhi. He has reported extensively on Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR). This includes the region's air pollution woes, a polluted Yamuna and on urban wildlife still thriving in the region. He joined HT in October 2021. Prior to that, he had five-year stint at The Times of India in Delhi, where he also covered Delhi, with a focus on environment and wildlife. Gandhiok has covered some recent events around the Capital too, ranging from the farmers' protests, the northeast Delhi riots and the CAA-NRC protests, reporting from the ground on all of these. He also travels across the country to report on how environment and climate change impact everyday life, while also writing on endangered species. His reports in 2019 on toxic leachate from Delhi's landfills led to the National Green Tribunal (NGT) taking suo motu cognisance and ultimately asking the state government to start bio-mining to flatten and remove all three landfills in the capital. He also closely tracks the implementation of government policies on climate, renewable energy and environmental protection. His focus remains on impactful, public-interest journalism which explains how environmental decisions affect people's everyday lives.Read More

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