Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana

What is Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana?

Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana is a Chhattisgarh state scheme that pays for commercial tree plantation on private land. The Chhattisgarh government announced the scheme on 17 December 2022 at Chhattisgarh Gaurav Diwas with a grant of Rs 100 crore, and the Chief Minister formally launched it on 21 March 2023, World Forestry Day. The Forest and Climate Change Department runs it through its territorial forest divisions. Readers searching in Hindi will find it as Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana.

The idea behind the scheme is economic as much as environmental. Chhattisgarh has a large wood-based industry but a shortage of legally harvestable timber, because felling in natural forest is tightly restricted. Growing timber on private farmland solves both problems at once: it gives industry a legal domestic supply, and it gives landowners a long-cycle cash crop on land that is otherwise idle or marginal.

Stated scale of the scheme

• Target of about 15 crore trees over 5 years.
• Plantation area target of roughly 1.8 lakh acres of private land.
• Initial grant of Rs 100 crore announced at launch.

Support structure announced at launch

• Full state support for plantation on up to 5 acres of an applicant's land.
• 50 per cent support for plantation on area beyond 5 acres.

The support covers the cost of raising the plantation: saplings from Forest Department nurseries, and the planting and maintenance package the division sanctions: rather than a lump-sum cash grant paid up front.

Which trees does Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana cover?

Chhattisgarh promotes commercially valuable species under the scheme, notably:

• Clonal eucalyptus: short rotation, the main species for pulp and plywood.
• Teak (sagaun): long rotation, high value timber.
• Bamboo, fast growing, with multiple annual harvests once established.
• Sandalwood (chandan); very long rotation, very high value.
• Melia dubia (malabar neem): fast-growing plywood species.

The species actually available to you in a planting season depend on what the nurseries of your forest division have raised. Ask the range office which species they have stock of before you plan your field layout, because a species that suits your soil but is not in the nursery that year cannot be supplied.

Who is eligible for Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana?

You can take part if you are:

• A farmer or private landowner in Chhattisgarh, the scheme covers willing landowners of all categories, with no ceiling on who may participate.
• A holder of land on lease or contract, where the tenure allows a plantation to be raised and held to maturity.
• A gram panchayat or other local body with land available for plantation.
• A government, semi-government or autonomous institution.
• A private educational institution with campus land.
• A private trust or society holding land.

You cannot apply if:

• You do not hold the land, the scheme plants on private and institutional land, not on reserved or protected forest land, and not on land you merely occupy without record.
• Your tenure over leased land is shorter than the rotation period of the species, since the plantation would not survive to harvest under your control.
• The land is under litigation or a boundary dispute, which divisions will not take up until settled.
• You are unwilling to sign the maintenance undertaking. Support is conditional on protecting the plantation and achieving the survival percentage the division sets.

There is no income test, no caste criterion and no age bar. The qualifying condition is land and a willingness to maintain trees on it.

What documents do you need?

How to apply for Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana

Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana is administered through the Forest Department's field offices, so the route runs through your range office rather than a public self-service portal.

1. Visit the range forest office covering your village, or the Divisional Forest Office of your district, and ask for the Vriksh Sampada Yojana registration form for the coming planting season.
2. Declare your plantation area. The khasra numbers, the total acreage you want to plant, and the species you prefer. State clearly whether you are within 5 acres or above it, since the support share differs.
3. Attach your documents: land record, Aadhaar copy, bank passbook copy, photograph, and the institutional resolution if you are applying on behalf of a body.
4. Sign the maintenance undertaking committing you to protect and water the plantation and to achieve the survival percentage the division specifies.
5. Allow the site survey. Forest Department staff inspect the land, confirm the area, assess soil and water availability, and fix how many saplings of which species the site can carry.
6. Collect the saplings from the allotted nursery in the planting window, which in Chhattisgarh runs with the monsoon from late June to August, and plant to the spacing prescribed for the species.
7. Keep the plantation records — the sanction letter, the sapling issue slip and the survival inspection reports. Every later release and every harvest permission runs on these papers.

Apply early. Divisions plan nursery stock a year ahead, so registration usually closes in May or June for that monsoon.

How to check your application and plantation status

1. Quote your registration or file number at the range forest office, which holds the working record of applications, sapling allotment and survival inspections.
2. Follow up at the Divisional Forest Office where the range office cannot answer; sanction is a divisional-level decision.
3. Check the Forest and Climate Change Department website, forest.cg.gov.in, for scheme circulars, species lists and any online registration facility your division has opened.
4. After planting, keep copies of the survival inspection reports. Support for later years is normally tied to the survival percentage recorded at inspection.

Common problems and how to avoid them

• Land record not in the applicant's name. Get mutation done at the tehsil office before applying; the division will not sanction on a disputed record.
• Applying after the nursery has allotted its stock. Register before the season, not in the middle of the monsoon.
• Choosing a species that does not suit the site. Eucalyptus and melia dubia need different soil and water conditions from teak or sandalwood. Take the range officer's advice rather than picking on price alone.
• Poor survival in the first two summers. The first two dry seasons kill more plantations than anything else. Plan watering and fencing before you plant, not after.
• Grazing and fire damage. Fencing or a live hedge and a fire line around the plot are the practical defences, and inspections take them into account.

Key dates

• 17 December 2022, announced at Chhattisgarh Gaurav Diwas with a Rs 100 crore grant.
• 21 March 2023; launched by the Chief Minister on World Forestry Day.
• Five-year horizon; target of about 15 crore trees on roughly 1.8 lakh acres.
• Each year, May to June, divisional registration for the coming monsoon.
• Late June to August, the planting window in Chhattisgarh.

Help and grievance redressal

• Range Forest Officer; first point of contact for registration, sapling allotment and inspection disputes.
• Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), for sanction decisions and complaints about the range office.
• Chief Conservator of Forests, circle level. The next appellate level.
• Forest and Climate Change Department, Chhattisgarh; forest.cg.gov.in carries departmental circulars and contact details.
• District Collector's grievance cell, for issues involving land records alongside the plantation.

Registration under Mukhyamantri Vriksh Sampada Yojana is free. Saplings supplied under the scheme are not to be charged for, and any demand for money in exchange for sanction or sapling allotment should be reported to the Divisional Forest Officer in writing.