The balancing of development and environment conservation has remained the toughest challenge ever. Evolving sustainable solutions lie at the core of this discourse and policy decisions to address the problem. The innovative concept of Green Highways plays a crucial role in compensating for the ecological loss caused by the felling of trees for the construction and expansion of highways by raising and maintaining roadside plantations. Survival rates of such plantation drives are a key indicator as to how green the newly constructed or expanded National Highway is. Official data shows that the survival rate of trees planted along national highways in Assam is over 82%, but it is way below Telangana and Uttarakhand, which recorded the highest survival rate of over 93%. Nearly ten years have elapsed since the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways notified the Green Highways (Plantation, Transplantation, Beautification & Maintenance) Policy, 2015, and understanding the challenges in its implementation is critical to evaluate how far the policy has been effective in achieving the end objectives. The policy acknowledged the problem that often, while preparing the land acquisition plans for the highway projects, the land needed for the avenue plantation and landscape improvement is not considered during the Detailed Project Report (DPR) stage. As a result, after construction, when the planting is actually to start, there is no option but to accommodate planting in whatever space is available, the policy states and points out that the width of the remaining Right of Way (RoW) is, many times, not to accommodate even a single row of plants, whereas at some places, three to four rows can be planted. The policy envisages that in order to ensure availability of width throughout for avenue planting, it is necessary that the requirement of land for tree plantation shall be included in the land acquisition plans prepared by the DPR consultants. Information tabled on the floor of the Lok Sabha highlights that specific targets are set each year through the formulation of Annual Plantation Action Plans. The targets for the number of saplings to be planted and the length of highways to be covered are determined based on the availability of land in medians and the RoW of highways. Against the target of planting 61.86 lakh saplings in the year 2024-25, a total of 67.14 lakh saplings have been planted till January this year. While surpassing the target is good news, focusing on improving the survival rate is more important for climate change mitigation by ensuring that NH stretches in the country are truly green and such infrastructure development is sustainable. The policy guidelines mandate the selection of plant species based on local agro-climatic conditions, soil type, and ecological suitability to ensure maximum survival and environmental sustainability but lack adequate data in the public domain on the breakup of total plantations along NH stretches, which is critical to ascertain if the target of avenue and median plantations has been achieved in all highway stretches. The policy mandates that the total number of median plants per km will be 333 in a case where a single row is proposed and 666 in a case of two rows, and the total number of avenue plants will be 333 per km of NH length. The survival rates alone cannot indicate if the policy objectives have been achieved or if gaps remain. The data reflecting on the survival of the required number of plants per km of NH length is more important to make a realistic evaluation of the plantation drive under the Green Highways policy mandate. Such data ensure that the larger picture of total plantation and total survival in different states does not overshadow the critical information about the gap in targets and achievements and helps the authorities concerned to identify the NH stretches which need more attention both in terms of plantation and maintenance. Massive expansion of NH in Assam and other states in the region and also construction of greenfield highways have led to the felling of a large number of trees. This has triggered genuine apprehension among people in the region of adverse impact in the form of a rise in temperature and an increase in pollution level, besides the loss of beautiful landscapes along the highways. Transparency about species planted and survival of the saplings planted to offset the loss of the green cover can reassure the people about measures taken under the policy to balance the developmental needs and environment conservation. The survival rate is only 70% in Tripura and Nagaland, which is a cause for grave concern. Strengthening the monitoring mechanism is essential for timely detection of the gaps in plantation work, negligence on the part of contractors and others involved and initiating corrective measures. Once the trees are felled for the construction of the highways, raising new plantations no longer remains a choice but becomes a compulsion to ensure the environmental sustainability of development.