This week in India over 1.5 million volunteers planted more than 66 million trees in 12 hours, smashing their own record set just last year.
1.5 Million Volunteers Plant 66 Million Trees in 12 Hours, Breaking Guinness World Record
India has broken its own world record by planting 66 million trees in just 12 hours, according to a Government official, in a bid to honour a pledge made at the Paris Climate Change Conference.
Volunteers planted more than 20 different species of trees.
Volunteers in India planted more than 66 million trees in just 12 hours in a record-breaking environmental drive.
About 1.5 million people were involved in the huge plantation campaign, in which saplings were placed along the Narmada river in the state of Madhya Pradesh throughout Sunday.
India is committed under the Paris Agreement to increasing its forests by five million hectares before 2030 to combat climate change.
Last year volunteers in Uttar Pradesh state set a world record by planting more than 50 million trees in one day.
Observers from Guinness World Records also monitored Sunday’s plantation and are expected to confirm in the coming weeks that the effort set a new high.
The campaign was organised by the Madhya Pradesh government, with 24 districts of the Narmada river basin chosen as planting sites to increase the saplings’ chances of survival.
Volunteers planted more than 20 different species of trees.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the state’s chief minister, described the efforts as a “historic day”.
He said volunteers including children and the elderly had planted 66.3 million saplings between 7am and 7pm, adding in a tweet:
“By planting trees we are not only serving Madhya Pradesh but the world at large.”
Source: TheIndependent Main Image: RijuBafna
Other nations are undertaking similar massive tree-planting efforts
Other nations are also undertaking massive tree-planting efforts to reduce deforestation and climate change.
In Australia, a team of engineers plan to use drones to plant 1 billion trees every year.
Dr Susan Graham has helped build a drone system that can scan the land, identify ideal places to grow trees, and then fire germinated seeds into the soil.
Deforestation and forest degradation make up 17 per cent of the world’s carbon emissions — more than the entire world’s transportation sector, according to the United Nations.
The planet loses 15 billion trees every year and much of it is cleared for farmland to feed the world’s booming population, but it is feared this could be exacerbating climate change.
Source: abc.net.au
India’s old image of pollution and smog is starting to fade
India did not have the best reputation when it comes to being green over the past decades. They currently are one of the world’s biggest producers of carbon emissions (although granted, their population is over 1.3 billion).
They also have become closely associated with poor inner-city air quality, coal burning, lack of sewage treatment operations, and the burning of biomass fuel.
However, this old image of pollution and smog is starting to fade. As India continues its rise as a major world power, there’s been big pushes to bring their economy into the 21st century using investment in green energy and environmentalism, from a local level all the way up to Narendra Modi, India’s current prime minister.
Source: IFLScience
Organizing a Tree Planting Project
Getting ready to organize your tree planting project? We’ve got a quick 16-point checklist to help keep you on track.