In an interview with ANI, Yadav said individuals, companies and organisations can help restore degraded forest land through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives and earn transferable green credits for creating green cover, while the ownership of land will remain with the forest department.

He added that small community green spaces in schools, colleges, residential colonies and urban areas are also being developed as "Namo Van" to promote environmental conservation. The Minister said, "We had two topics, one was Namo Van and the other was Green Credit. We have decided that we also see in cities that there are small patches.

So we have said that from 300 meters to 3,000 square meters, if there is any open community area, or it can also be in urban areas. We have decided to develop these small patches as Namo Van, and through the state campaign, we also give support, and we want people to make these Namo Van. But secondly, in many corporate areas, in the area of CSR, I know many organisations do good work, who told us that such degraded land, which is near the forest, but it is degraded land, can we do work on public participation there? So we decided that if anyone wants to develop on degraded land, through their CSR, through the SMCV organisation, then there will be a compromise with the forest department."

Explaining the framework, he further said that the ownership of the land would remain with the forest department, while restoration work would be undertaken through public participation and CSR support. "So the ownership will be of the forest. Only on that degraded land, the local plan there, the indigenous species, indigenous grass, trees, we will work on them.

And the canopy that will be developed on it, if the green cover of up to 20 per cent is developed on it, then they will be given green credit, which will also be green credit transferable. So we have made a movement for public participation, because many organisations. There have been enthusiastic results of starting this, because we also first identify every land, degraded land, then people come for CSR, so we definitely, whoever wants to contribute to greening this land, I say, give them a green credit card, or develop any such area around you in the Namo forest. Green land gives us happiness in life," he further added.

According to official information, the Green Credit Programme is an innovative mechanism to incentivise environmentally positive actions and to promote the LIFE (Lifestyle for Environment) movement, which aims at encouraging sustainable lifestyles by driving the community towards behavioural changes that support environmentally friendly actions.

Further, responding to concerns that India may not be expanding its non-fossil fuel and solar energy capacity quickly enough to achieve its net-zero targets, Yadav said the country is making steady progress through initiatives such as metro expansion, adoption of electric vehicles, growth in solar energy, forest conservation and wetland protection.