Reference
Primary sources
Green belt obligations in India are set by office memoranda, not by the EIA Notification itself — which is why they can change administratively, and why so much of what circulates about them is out of date. Several are published only as scans. We reproduce them where that is the case.
Green belt and green cover, rationalised by pollution potential
F.No. IA3-22/14/2025-IA.III (E-275538) · MoEF&CC, Impact Assessment Division
The current instrument. Supersedes the memorandum of 27 October 2020 and replaces the uniform 33% requirement with tiers keyed to pollution potential. The government copy is a five-page scan with no text layer.
Read it →29 October 2025Transcribed in fullGuidelines for Developing Greenbelts
PROBES/75/1999-2000 · Central Pollution Control Board
210 pages covering technical specification and species selection across fifteen agro-climatic zones. Sets no method for calculating how much green belt is required — which is the gap the 2025 memorandum fills.
Read it →March 2000Structure documented, species list in progressGreen belt criteria for Critically and Severely Polluted Areas
OM dated 31 October 2019 · MoEF&CC
Introduced the 40% requirement for Red and Orange category industries in CPAs and SPAs, in compliance with the NGT order of 23.08.2019 in O.A. No. 1038/2018. Still operative — the 2025 memorandum expressly preserves it.
31 October 2019Not yet transcribedStandardised environmental clearance conditions
OMs dated 09.08.2018, 04.01.2019 and 08.01.2019 · MoEF&CC
Where the 33% figure entered clearance conditions for most sectors. Superseded for industrial estates and individual industries by the 2025 memorandum, but still the origin of the number most people quote.
2018–2019Not yet transcribedGreen area in Industrial Estates, Parks, EPZs and SEZs
OM dated 27 October 2020 · MoEF&CC
Required an overall green area of at least 33% of an industrial estate, with the estate free to allocate part of that burden to member units. Expressly superseded on 29 October 2025.
27 October 2020Superseded
Instruments listed as not yet transcribed are named because they are part of the chain, not because we have published them. We add a transcription only once we have read the signed original.