What is the project that aims to plant trees in the fellow and waste land in India?
Answers
Update 5 July 2017: The previous record has been broken already, with the news this week that 1.5 million people planted 66 million trees along the Narmada river in the state of Madhya Pradesh.
As development in India has raced ahead, demand for firewood, pasture and land for building has destroyed vast tracts of forest.
In fact, since 2013, more than 2,500 square kilometres of very dense and mid-dense forests have been wiped out, according to India Today.
Despite this, the Indian government reports that the total area of forested land has increased and new efforts are being made to expand them even further. The ultimate aim is 33% forest cover.
As part of the reforestation initiative, 800,000 volunteers in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh set a new world record: they planted 50.4 million trees in just 24 hours. The previous world record, set by Pakistan in 2013, was 847,275 trees.
More than 80 different species of sapling were raised at local nurseries and planted at over 6,000 locations across the state in 2016.
A multibillion dollar reforestation programme
The mass planting was put in motion as part of a strategy by the Indian government to tackle climate change. The effort was part of India’s commitment to the Paris Climate Conference in 2015. In that agreement, India agreed to spend $6 billion to regrow forests on 12% of the country’s land and bring total forest cover up to 29%.
“The world has realized that serious efforts are needed to reduce carbon emissions to mitigate the effects of global climate change,” said Akhilesh Yadav, the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, speaking at an event promoting the planting.
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