Indian Volunteers Plant 250 Million Saplings in One Day

• A mass tree planting campaign was launched in the Uttar Pradesh state in India to increase its forest area.
• India aims to transform a third of its total land into forest cover.
• Volunteers planted a total of 250 million saplings in forests, farms, schools, and along riverbanks and highways.

In a quest for cleaner air, Indian volunteers planted an impressive 250 million tree saplings in just one day.

Mass tree planting operations across the world have received some skepticism for their actual impacts. However, the last four major plantings in the Uttar Pradesh state have led to an impressive average sapling survival rate of 80%.

German forester Peter Wohlleben, who wrote The Secret Life of Trees, said that an average 50 years of growing is needed before any carbon can actually be considered “sequestered.”

With many of Uttar Pradesh’s new trees having survived for around four or five years, it inspires hope that they would become contributing members of the tree society.

Tree planting has become a yearly tradition in the most-populous Indian state. Last year, 30 million saplings were planted along the Ganges.

On Sunday, millions of residents planted the saplings in forests, on farms, schools, and along riverbanks and highways.

State forest official Manoj Singh declared, “We are committed to increasing the forest cover of Uttar Pradesh to over 15% of the total land area in the next five years.”

True to their mission, the state’s forest cover has already increased over the last few years, DW reported.

The Indian Express newspaper quoted a state government spokesperson who said, “There has been an increase of 127 square kilometers [79 square miles] in the forest cover in Uttar Pradesh as compared to 2017.”

Countries across the world have launched mass tree plantings, as it is an easy and inexpensive method of drawing carbon from the atmosphere. These include China, Pakistan, India, Madagascar, and the nations of the Sahel, especially Ethiopia and Senegal, GNN reported.

Geo-tagging with QR codes helps forest officials monitor plantation survival rates and maintain records at individual sites.

India aims to expand its tree cover by 95 million hectares by 2030.

Source: Good News Network