India, Feb. 27 -- Former forest official alleges Centre wants to facilitate 'ease of business'

The recently published Green Credit Rules are "disastrous" and "detrimental" to ecological aspects of forests, experts have pointed out.

The Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has notified the rules which direct state forest departments to 'identify degraded land parcels' - including open forest and scrubland, wasteland and catchment areas - under their administrative control and management.

These shall be made available for tree plantation to promote activities for increasing green cover across India for the purpose of generating green credits under the said Rules.

Debadityo Sinha, senior resident fellow and le...