MoEFCC Revises Industrial Green Belt Criteria Based on Pollution Potential

India's MoEFCC revised industrial green belt and green cover requirements through an Office Memorandum issued October 29, 2025, setting graded area mandates by pollution category. The new norms supersede the October 2020 guidance and introduce half-yearly compliance reporting with drone imagery for industrial estates and units.

The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change revised green belt standards for industrial areas via an Office Memorandum issued October 29, 2025 by the Impact Assessment Division. The norms supersede the OM dated October 27, 2020 and set green cover requirements based on pollution potential. Industrial estates must designate at least 10% of total area as common green area with dense plantation of approximately 2,500 trees per hectare. The green belt requirement originated under the EIA Notification of 2006 mandating prior Environmental Clearance.

Industrial estates and individual units are directly affected by category-based mandates. Within estates, red category industries must maintain a minimum 15% green belt, orange category 10%, while green and white categories are optional. For predominantly air-polluting sectors requiring EC, red category must allocate 25% (PIₐ ≥ 80), orange 20% (PIₐ ≥ 55), and green 10% (PIₐ ≥ 25). For other sectors, red and orange categories must maintain 20% and 15% green cover respectively, with green and white optional.

Affected entities should develop green belts along the project periphery with a minimum width of 10-20 meters, planting only native species densely for canopy coverage, maintained within the estate boundary. Industrial estates must submit half-yearly status reports to the SPCB/PCC and MoEFCC's IRO, including canopy coverage, species, survival rates, and mandatory drone imagery. Individual units must submit half-yearly reports on total area, tree number, and species, subject to random SPCB/PCC verification during routine site inspections.

Key figure — Green cover mandate: air-polluting red category industries must allocate 25% of area as green belt (PIₐ ≥ 80)