The tree count for your Environment Statement

A yearly statement required by Rule 14 of the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986. A unit that needs consent under the Water Act or the Air Act, or a hazardous waste authorisation, files it in Form V for the financial year ending 31 March, with the State Pollution Control Board, on or before 30 September. (Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, rule 14)

In Maharashtra, that board is MPCB. A unit in Surat files with the Gujarat Pollution Control Board.

In some consent orders, as a condition. One MPCB Consent to Establish from 2014 sets the 33% green cover condition, then asks the unit to file a statement with its Environment Statement giving:

• the available open plot area
• the number of trees surviving as on 31 March
• the number of trees planted by the end of September

(MPCB consent order, 2014, condition 21) Your own order may word this differently, or not ask at all. Read the example order next to yours.

1. Measure the open plot area once, the way your consent defines it, and keep the drawing.
2. Keep a register: each tree's location, species and planting date.
3. Count the surviving trees on 31 March, and note the ones lost.
4. Record new planting through the monsoon, up to the end of September.
5. Keep dated photos of each count.

The count matters because the condition is about trees that survive, not only trees planted.

We help you meet your green-cover condition and give you the tree count for your Environment Statement. We plant, then look after the planting under an annual contract with monthly photo reports. For a first look at the area involved, use the green cover calculator.