Examine the role of Centre-state convergence mechanisms like CAMPA in financing coastal ecosystem restoration schemes such as MISHTI.

Coastal restoration is constitutionally a shared responsibility, but states rarely command dedicated funds for it. MISHTI (Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats & Tangible Incomes), launched in 2023 to restore about 540 sq. km of mangroves across 9 coastal States and 4 UTs, is therefore designed not as a standalone outlay but through convergence with gap funding from CAMPA [1] — making convergence, rather than fresh budgetary allocation, the financing backbone.

How convergence finances restoration

• Gap funding, not full funding: MISHTI first draws on MGNREGS wage components and state plan works; CAMPA fills only the residual gap, stretching a modest outlay across a long coastline [1].
• Demonstrated transfers: ₹17.96 crore was released from CAMPA in FY 2024-25 to Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Odisha, West Bengal and Puducherry for treating 3,836 hectares of degraded mangroves [2].
• Predictable, non-lapsable pool: compensatory afforestation levies give states an assured corpus insulated from annual budget cuts.
• Repurposing afforestation money: CAMPA funds shift from routine plantation to targeted ecosystem restoration, recognising mangroves as storm-surge buffers and carbon sinks.

Limitations of the mechanism

• Thin per-hectare financing: the FY 2024-25 release works out to a small sum per hectare, inadequate for nursery-raising, hydrological correction and multi-year aftercare.
• Compensatory logic: CAMPA money originates in forest diversion, so restoration funding paradoxically expands with forest loss.
• Capacity asymmetry: only six coastal states/UTs drew funds in that year [2], suggesting weak state-level project preparation.
• Survival over planting: convergence rewards physical targets; livelihood outcomes — the "tangible incomes" in MISHTI — remain under-monitored.

Convergence has made coastal restoration financially feasible without a new scheme, and Gujarat's review of MISHTI progress alongside Great Indian Bustard and grassland work shows its widening administrative acceptance [3]. Going forward, CAMPA support should be tied to multi-year survival audits and community usufruct rights, so that restored mangroves deliver both the ecological security and the livelihoods the scheme promises, advancing India's SDG-13 and SDG-14 commitments.