The auditor general has recently reported that a key pillar of the government’s climate action strategy has been teetering since inception. The Green India Mission, approved as a central scheme in 2014 and paraded as a flagship programme to protect and enhance India’s forest cover, has fallen abysmally short of goals. An audit across 16 states and Union territories between 2015-16 and 2024-25 found that only 5 percent of the mission’s afforestation target had been met. The report lays the blame for this massive underperformance squarely at the door of the environment ministry. Its recommendations including bottom-up planning, better coordination, regular oversight and timely fund release must be urgently taken up. Otherwise, the government will be guilty of paying lip service to one of the biggest disruptions of this age: climate change.