India To Spend $2.4 Billion On Forest Rejuvenation

NEW DELHI — India, the world's fourth-largest emitter of carbon dioxide, plans to spend $2.4 billion on rejuvenating 3 million hectares of degraded forests to increase the green cover and soak up emissions.

The government proposes to revive more than 6 million hectares of degraded forests in two phases during the next 10 years, the ministry of environment and forests said in an e-mail statement yesterday. The first phase envisages planting trees over 3 million hectares starting this year, it said.

The plan is one of the steps that India, whose coastal cities may face inundation from higher ocean levels brought on by climate change, will take to mitigate the impact. The nation will unveil a broader action plan next month as it joins China and almost 130 other developing countries in resisting calls to limit air pollution as their economies expand.

The world's nations are locked in talks for a new treaty to curb output of heat-trapping greenhouse gases by 2010, before the Kyoto climate accord expires. China said in March that developed nations should cut emissions by 25% to 40% of 1990 levels by 2020. Forests covered 20.6%, of India's geographical area in 2006, the government has said. That's 0.1% less than in 2003.

Prime Minister Singh of India last year proposed a plan to rejuvenate degraded forestland in the South Asian nation and save electricity on lamps by providing compact fluorescent lamps at the price of normal bulbs to households.