Green Credit Programme India: What Companies Must Know in 2026
India's Green Credit Programme has quietly become one of the most demanding corporate plantation schemes in the country. When it launched at COP28 in November 2023, the pitch was simple: restore degraded forest land, earn tradable green credits. Nearly three years on, the trading has gone, the timelines have stretched, and the bar for what counts as a real forest has risen sharply. If your company is planning a monsoon plantation drive or finalising a BRSR filing this quarter, here is what actually applies in 2026.
What the revised rules changed
The Green Credit Rules were notified on 12 October 2023 under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, with the tree plantation and eco-restoration methodology following on 22 February 2024. That methodology was substantially revised on 29 August 2025, and the revision is the part most corporate teams have missed.
Three changes matter:
Credits now follow survival, not planting. The earlier approach was tied to a fixed 1,100-tree parameter. The revised methodology drops that in favour of canopy cover: the land parcel must reach a minimum canopy density of 40%, with one credit issued for each surviving tree.
You wait five years. A plantation must demonstrate at least five years of successful restoration and maintenance before any credit is issued. There is no early payout.
Green credits are no longer tradable. The revised methodology makes them non-tradable and non-transferable, except for transfers between a holding company and its subsidiaries. They can be exchanged once — against compensatory afforestation, CSR, or project-linked obligations — and cannot be reused after that.
The programme is administered by the Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE), Dehradun. Companies register on the GCP portal as Green Credit Applicants and select degraded forest land parcels of at least five hectares. In March 2026 the government told Parliament that 4,391 hectares across 12 states had been selected for eco-restoration under the programme, with Gujarat (975 ha), Madhya Pradesh (640 ha) and Chhattisgarh (536 ha) leading.
Green credits are not carbon credits
This is the most common confusion we see in buyer conversations, and the 2025 revision settles it: green credits are explicitly ruled out of any linkage with the carbon market. The practical differences:
What they measure. A carbon credit represents one tonne of CO2e reduced or removed. A green credit represents a surviving tree in a restored forest parcel, with no tonnage attached. If you are new to the distinction, start with our primer on what carbon credits are and how they work.
What you can claim. Retired carbon credits support emission-reduction or offsetting claims. Green credits cannot be used to claim carbon neutrality.
Where they settle obligations. Green credits can be exchanged once against compensatory afforestation, CSR or project-linked obligations. Carbon Credit Certificates under the Carbon Credit Trading Scheme settle compliance obligations against notified GHG emission intensity targets.
Whether you can trade them. CCCs are headed for the power exchanges. Green credits are not.
One caution: using the same plantation to generate green credits for a CSR obligation and carbon credits for a neutrality claim is double counting. It will not survive assurance. Pick one claim per hectare and document it from day one.
Where green credits appear in your BRSR
SEBI's circular of 28 March 2025 brought green credits into the BRSR framework as a leadership indicator under Principle 6, the environment principle. Listed entities may disclose green credits generated by the company and by its top 10 value chain partners. The same circular narrowed value chain disclosure to partners contributing at least 2% of total purchases and sales by value, and moved several of these disclosures onto a voluntary footing from FY 2025-26.
Two implications for the filing season now under way:
It is voluntary, but it is visible. A blank leadership indicator sitting next to a competitor's populated one is a comparison your investor relations team will be asked about. If you are still working through the assurance requirements, our note on BRSR Core assurance in 2026 covers the wider glide path.
Five years means starting now. Because credits only vest after five years and 40% canopy, a plantation begun this monsoon reports as work in progress until roughly FY 2031-32. Companies treating green credits as a same-year disclosure will have nothing to report.
What to do this monsoon
Decide the claim first — green credit, carbon credit, or CSR spend. That decision shapes land selection, species mix and documentation, and it is expensive to reverse.
Check the land, not the seedling count. With 40% canopy as the test, site quality and post-planting maintenance matter far more than how many saplings go in on day one.
Budget for five years of maintenance, not one planting day. This is where most corporate plantations quietly fail — our Miyawaki forest survival rate checklist sets out what to ask a plantation partner before you sign.
Record baseline canopy and geotagged evidence from the start. Reconstructing proof in year five is not realistic. Plan the monitoring alongside the planting — our monsoon plantation guide walks through the season's timeline.
Csquare designs and maintains Miyawaki and dryland afforestation projects across India, and advises corporate teams on whether a plantation is better routed through the Green Credit Programme, the voluntary carbon market, or a straightforward CSR mandate. If you are scoping a site for this monsoon or need the green credit line in your BRSR to say something, talk to our team.
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