Assam government clearing 61,375 bighas of forest land from encroachment over the past two years has triggered fresh hopes for increasing forest cover. Apart from preventing re-encroachment, growing trees on degraded encroachment-free forest land has multiple challenges which need to be overcome to achieve the end objectives. Strengthening forest protection force is essential to prevent re-encroachment but given the spread of geographical areas this is a task which cannot be left alone to the forest department. Forest fringe dwellers can be force multiplier in surveillance against encroachment if they are co-opted by forest protection force. Campaigns of tree plantation gaining popularity is an encouraging trend but choosing right kind of trees for planting often gets overshadowed and ignored. Enthusiastic participation of people in mass tree plantations on the World Environment Day is a sign of growing awareness of the importance of tree plantation for climate change mitigation. But are we planting the same trees everywhere or tree saplings which may not be suitable for a particular geographical area and may turn out to be an invasive species for other trees. A pitfall of such tree plantation drive without taking care for choice of tree species leads to mono-culture plantation replacing multi-species forest biodiversity that was once there but depleted or lost due to encroachment or timber smuggling. The Assam government has undertaken an ambitious programme of planting one crore tree saplings on Gandhi Jayanti this year to boost “tree economy” in the state. The state government has also announced an incentive of RS 300 – Rs 100 for planting a sapling and Rs 200 if the sapling survives three years which is expected to evoke the desired response in the mass tree plantation drive. The forest department drawing a meticulous plan for every single plot to be covered by the single-day plantation drive and preparing a comprehensive guideline and advisory on choice of sapling species will be critical to avoid plantation drive ending up promoting monocultures. The objectives of the plantation drive must not be to just achieve the target in numbers but restoration of the lost forest ecology. Besides, ecological impact of plantation drive outside the forests resulting in monocultures, as cautioned by experts, cannot be ignored. To foster tree economy, the Assam government has created the legal framework of allowing growing of trees commercially outside the forest areas. Forest department allows growers to harvest such trees for commercial purpose with the state government doing away with the norm of seeking prior permission from the department to fell trees grown on private land. The rationale behind the relaxation is that due to permit regime, people were not keen to plant trees of high commercial value on their land due to which growing trees outside forests has not been a priority. The Assam government launched the five-year programme of “Trees outside Forests in India” in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development, which is aimed at improving carbon sequestration, supporting local economy through agro-forestry, strengthening climate resilience towards climate change mitigation. The Forest Survey of India Report 2021 describes tree cover and tree outside forest as two different entities but closely related to each other. It explains that tree outside forest includes all trees outside reserved forest areas while tree cover means patches of trees as well isolated trees outside reserved forest areas on areas less than one hectare. Tree cover in Assam accounts for 2.08% and tree outside forest accounts for 10.35% of total geographical areas of the state. Thus there is ample scope for increasing tree cover as well as tree outside forest in the state as tree cover and forests together account for 33.19% of geographic area. People’s biodiversity registers complied in the state present the diversity of tree cover and trees outside forest which have been playing a crucial role in shaping the local ecology. Preservation of this natural biodiversity is crucial to preserve the biodiversity of an area and pushing monocultures on commercial interests in large areas can lead to destruction of biodiversity. Having checks and balances in tree economy based on ecological priorities is of paramount importance. The people’s biodiversity can also help generate local ecological atlas of an area to decide what percentage of a certain species of tree having high commercial value can be grown so as not to adversely affect the biodiversity. Relaxation in tree felling norms outside forest areas also must not lead to conversion of agricultural land for growing trees of commercial value. If it is allowed, then it will have a negative impact on food security and traditional farming practices of indigenous communities and may also lead to permanent loss of indigenous seeds diversity. The State Forest department releasing a comprehensive atlas of trees outside forests specifying what tree species are to be planted is vital for checks and balances in tree economy.