Tree plantation is one of the most popular ways for Indian companies to spend environmental CSR money. It is visible, it involves employees, and the planting day photographs well. The hard question comes a year or two later: how many of those trees are still alive?
Increasingly, someone does ask. This guide covers the rules that make survival matter for CSR, what your board and assessors will want to see, and how to set up monitoring before the first sapling goes in.
How much CSR goes to the environment
An analysis of company CSR filings by Sattva Consulting, reported in July 2026, put environmental CSR spending from FY2014-15 to FY2023-24 at ₹17,377 crore. The environment’s share of all CSR spending rose to 8.4 percent in FY2023-24, up from 4.4 percent in FY2020-21. The same analysis found that nearly every company with a CSR budget above ₹50 crore funds environmental work.
That is a lot of money to account for with a count of saplings planted.
Why survival now matters for CSR
Impact assessment is mandatory for larger projects
Since the January 2021 amendment to the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014, a company whose average CSR obligation over the three preceding financial years is ₹10 crore or more must commission an independent impact assessment for every CSR project with an outlay of ₹1 crore or more, once the project has been complete for at least a year. Since a further amendment in September 2022, the company can book up to 2 percent of its total CSR spending for the year, or ₹50 lakh, whichever is higher, on impact assessment (summary of the rule changes).
For a plantation, the impact is mostly the trees that survived. An assessor arriving a year after planting needs survival data per site. If nobody recorded what was planted where, or measured it since, there is very little to assess.
BRSR disclosures
The top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation file a Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report under SEBI rules, mandatory since FY2022-23. Plantation drives often appear in it as environmental initiatives. Under SEBI’s BRSR Core framework, key environmental figures in these reports are also being brought under outside assessment or assurance, phased in across the top 1,000 companies. A dated survival figure is far stronger evidence than “50,000 saplings planted”, and much harder to challenge later.
Green credits reward survival, not planting
The Green Credit Programme lets companies earn credits for tree plantation, and those credits can be exchanged once against CSR obligations, compensatory afforestation or plantation conditions in project approvals. The methodology revised in August 2025 issues credits only after at least five years, one credit per surviving tree, once the land reaches at least 40 percent canopy cover. That is five years of survival evidence, which only a monitoring programme can produce.
The public record on plantations is weak
Audits of government afforestation have repeatedly found that survival was not measured. A CAG audit in Odisha counted one plantation by drone and found 18 percent of plants alive, and could not verify others from the records kept. A company that funds plantations through partners is exposed to the same risk unless it checks for itself. We go through the audit findings in plantation monitoring in India.
What your board and assessor will ask
Expect these questions about any CSR plantation project:
- Where exactly were the trees planted? (Site boundaries, not just a village name.)
- How many were planted, of which species, and when?
- How many are alive now, and how was that measured?
- Who measured it, and are they independent of the partner who planted?
- What happened to the trees that died? Were they replaced?
- Is the survival improving or declining year on year?
If your current reporting cannot answer all six, the gap is usually in monitoring, not in planting.
Setting up CSR plantation monitoring
Before planting
- Write survival into the agreement. Set a survival target at fixed dates, say twelve months and three years, in the MoU with the implementing partner. Link part of the payment to meeting it, so maintenance does not stop once the planting is done.
- Record the baseline. Get the boundary of every site as a map file or GPS points, the species list and the planted count, all dated. Without this, nothing measured later can be compared.
- Agree who monitors. The partner who plants has an interest in a good number. Independent monitoring, by a third party or by technology that does not depend on the partner’s reports, makes the result credible.
During the first year
Most saplings that die do so in the first year. Monitoring should be frequent enough to catch losses while they can still be fixed: after the first monsoon, through the first dry season, and at twelve months. Our guide on how to measure tree survival rate explains the formula, sample plots and schedule.
Satellite monitoring is useful here because it can check every site every week without anyone travelling. When one block’s vegetation readings start falling, you can alert the partner to water, protect or replant it the same season.
Years two to five
Survival should be checked at least every year until the trees are established. If you are aiming for green credits, plan for five years from the start. Keep using the same plots and methods so the figures are comparable over time.
What to put in the CSR plantation report
A report that will stand up to an assessor includes, for each site:
- A map of the site boundary and its area
- Species, number planted and planting date
- Survival rate at each check, with date and method
- Survival by block, not only the site average
- Number of saplings replaced, reported separately
- Satellite or drone images from planting to the latest check
- Who carried out the monitoring
Across the programme, add the total planted, the total alive at the latest check, and the overall survival rate. Publishing an honest survival figure, even a disappointing one, is more credible than publishing none.
How Get Zero helps CSR teams
Boards want results, not planting photos. Get Zero checks CSR plantations by satellite every week and counts trees by drone where you need it. You see a health map for every 10 metre square of every site, a survival curve over time, and a WhatsApp alert when part of a site starts drying, early enough for your partner to save it. The result is a dated record of what is alive per project, with survival certificates, ready for your impact assessment, annual report and BRSR.
See how it works for companies and CSR teams, look at the product, or book a demo with your own sites.
Common questions
Is tree plantation an eligible CSR activity in India?
Yes. Schedule VII of the Companies Act, 2013 lists ensuring environmental sustainability and ecological balance, protection of flora and fauna, agroforestry and conservation of natural resources as eligible CSR activities, and tree plantation projects are usually funded under this item.
Do CSR plantation projects need an impact assessment?
Under the Companies (CSR Policy) Rules, 2014 as amended in January 2021, a company with an average CSR obligation of ₹10 crore or more over the three preceding financial years must have an independent agency assess the impact of each CSR project with an outlay of ₹1 crore or more, once the project has been completed for at least a year. A plantation project's impact is shown mainly by how many trees survived.
How do companies monitor CSR tree plantations?
By recording the boundary and planted count of every site at planting, then measuring survival at fixed dates using field sample plots, drones and satellite imagery. The strongest reports use monitoring that is independent of the implementing partner who planted the trees.
Can a CSR plantation earn green credits?
Green credits under the Green Credit Programme can be exchanged once against CSR obligations, among other uses. Under the methodology revised in August 2025, credits for tree plantation are issued only after at least five years, for trees that survive, on land that has reached at least 40 percent canopy cover.