J&K digital leap: Paperless governance saves trees, boosts efficiency

The digital transformation in Jammu and Kashmir’s administration, initiated in 2021, has started delivering significant results, including massive paper savings, reduced carbon emissions, and faster file processing.

For the first time, a civil servant, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, posted as Secretary to the Government, Science and Technology Department, has published a comprehensive study quantifying the total reduction in carbon emissions resulting from the full transition to e-Office and the digitalisation of Government operations.

The research is based on real data from 2018 to 2025. Administrative records, transport logs, and energy consumption patterns were all analysed using international methodologies. It’s the first comprehensive environmental impact study of digital public administration in a Himalayan ecosystem.

Sharing the key findings of his research paper, Dr Shahid Choudhary Monday, posted on X (earlier Twitter), “I have just published research that examines something we don’t often think about: how much carbon emissions come from the way the Government itself operates.

Before the adoption of e-Office in 2021, the region followed the biannual Darbar Move, shifting the Capital between Jammu and Srinagar. The administration used to engage hundreds of trucks and buses for carrying office records and officials from one Capital city to another. For safe transportation, the Jammu & Kashmir Police and paramilitary forces would dominate the entire Jammu-Srinagar national highway. Apart from the expenses incurred on hiring trucks and buses, the moving staff also used to be paid TA and DA, besides arrangements for their accommodation. The entire exercise entailed an expenditure of over Rs 200 crores.

Before rolling out the ambitious e-office project, over two crore pages from 3.50 lakh files of various Government offices in Jammu and Kashmir were digitised. Using empirical data from 2018 to 2025, Dr Shahid noted, “When Jammu & Kashmir shifted from paper files to digital administration, the environmental impact was massive; 10,294 tonnes of CO2 were eliminated every year. That’s equivalent to planting over 450,000 trees or taking more than 2,200 cars off the road permanently.

Dr Shahid noted, “Going digital eliminated 3,343 tonnes of CO2 just from that one change. Now, 17,286+ employees work remotely through a Virtual Private Network (VPN). No trucks hauling file boxes. No daily commutes for routine administrative work. That’s 1,041 tonnes of transport emissions gone. Today, 114,826 Government officials process everything digitally. They’ve handled 3.75 million files and 34 million receipts without paper.” “The scale of what changed is hard to grasp until you see the numbers. Since 2021, this transition has resulted in the avoidance of printing 405.7 million pages,” said Dr Choudhary in his post on X.

Expressing his concern for the fragile ecosystem, Dr Choudhary said, “Tens of thousands of trees are still standing.” “Think about that. Hundreds of millions of sheets of paper that never got manufactured, never got transported, never ended up in landfills.” He said the new e-Office system works through secure networks, email, and remote access. It’s faster, more transparent, and dramatically better for the environment. What strikes me is how this changes our thinking about climate action. We focus so much on big industrial changes. But Government operations themselves have a significant carbon footprint.

Dr Shahid also observed in his study that when you digitise an entire administrative system, especially in ecologically sensitive mountain regions, the environmental gains are substantial and immediate. He recommended that this model could work across India. Mountain States face similar challenges. The combination of difficult terrain, fragile ecosystems, and administrative needs makes digital governance not just efficient but environmentally essential.

The study covers eight core emission sources: LPG consumption, private vehicle use, Government-hired trucks and buses, parallel household electricity usage, paper consumption avoided, office utility savings, long-distance movement of personnel and files, and virtual work facilitated via VPNs and email systems.

According to Dr Shahid Choudhary, “The baseline estimates indicate that over 62,000 tonnes of CO? emissions were avoided from household duplication alone compared to the physical movement of offices and files (2018-2020), while digitisation has eliminated the need for over 20 million physical pages annually, saving tens of thousands of trees and substantial paper-related emissions. The environmental gains are significant in terms of GHG reduction, natural resource conservation, energy efficiency, and administrative decarbonisation.”