Mumbai, Feb. 3 -- The Maharashtra government on Monday decided to set up the Green Maharashtra Authority (GMA) with an eye on increasing forest cover in the state from 20% to 33%, to address climate change-related concerns. Under Mission Green Maharashtra, three billion indigenous trees will be planted across the state over the next five years, starting with 200 million trees this year, said chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. The chief minister was addressing a meeting where the decision to set up the GMA was taken. The authority must be set up February 17, during the Mumbai climate week, and a geographic information system (GIS) based land bank must be readied by March-end, Fadnavis ordered. Presently, the area under forest cover in Maharashtra is 61,965.88 square kilometres or 20.14% of the state's total area. According to the presentation made before Fadnavis on Monday, Mission Green Maharashtra has six objectives, including plantation of 3 billion indigenous trees over five years, ensuring ecological integrity by using species suited to agro-climatic zones and local ecosystems, creating a satellite-based monitoring system, and strengthening nurseries and seed systems to ensure reliable supply of indigenous species. The chief minister ordered the administration to ensure participation of experts, nonprofits and startups in the tree plantation programme. A proposal to establish the GMA to coordinate the programme should be presented before the cabinet and implemented on priority in areas with low green cover such as Marathwada, he said. "Under Mission Green Maharashtra, up to 200 million trees should be planted in the first year, depending on availability of seedlings," Fadnavis said. Bamboo and teak should be prioritised in the exercise, he said. Officials said the demarcation of plantation sites and digging work would be completed by April-end while all plantation work would have to be wrapped up by August 15. "That means, we will have to plant 20 crore trees in just 105 days, at 19,04,761 trees per day," an official said. The Maharashtra Institution for Transformation (MITRA) will monitor the mission, and only species suited to the local ecosystem will be planted as per various agro-climate zones, said MITRA CEO Praveen Pardeshi....