Live Eventsas a Reliable and Trusted News Source Addas a Reliable and Trusted News Source Add Now! (You can now subscribe to our(You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channelAssam has the highest green cover along national highways followed by Gujarat, Telangana, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra as per the National Highways - Green Cover Index, launched by the National Highways Authority of India, on Monday.The National Highways - Green Cover Index 2025-26 is a remote sensing-based assessment and monitoring of green cover along National Highways. It is done in coordination with the National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).In this first assessment cycle, approximately 30,000 km of National Highways spanning 24 states have been covered for the period July–December 2024.As per the NH-GCI, which is reported as a percentage value that represents the proportion of land covered by green cover within the RoW of National Highways at a granularity of one kilometre, Assam has 53.16% of green cover followed by Gujarat (46.91%), Telangana (43.57%), Bihar (42.77%) and Tamil Nadu (42.38%)Lowest green cover across national highways has been reported in Himachal Pradesh (13.5%), Delhi (25.37%), Chhattisgarh (27.82%), Odisha (30.25%) and Jammu & Kashmir (32.11%).However, the percentage green cover is dependent on the number of projects evaluated and their length.“Subsequent annual cycles will track year-on-year changes to monitor progressive improvements in green cover,” the ministry of road transport and highways said.The initiative aims to provide a scientific and quantitative assessment of green cover within the Right of Way (RoW) along the National Highways network by leveraging advanced space-based technologies.The assessment is derived from chlorophyll content detected through high-resolution satellite sensors, enabling an objective, technology-driven measure of vegetation presence along the left and right sides of the highways.

Source: Economic Times March 10, 2026 03:23 UTC