1.5 Million Volunteers Plant 66 Million Trees in 12 Hours, Breaking Guinness World Record
The central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh set a new Guinness World Record on Sunday after 1.5 million volunteers planted more than 66 million tree saplings in just 12 hours along the Narmada river.
The effort bested the state of Uttar Pradesh’s previous record-breaking feat, when 800,000 participants planted 50 million trees in one day in July 2016.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, boasted the achievement: “I am extremely proud to happily share that people of Madhya Pradesh successfully planted 6.63 Crore saplings today.” One crore is 10 million.
According to a press release for the occasion, the aim of the mass-planting event was to raise awareness for the nation’s “make India green again” plan. At the Paris climate conference, India pledged to increase forest cover to 95 million hectares (235 million acres) by year 2030 and is putting $6.2 billion towards the effort.
“I am greatly indebted to all who are planting trees today. We will be contributing significantly in saving nature. By participating in a plantation, people are contributing their bit to climate change initiatives and saving the environment.The world talks of global warming & climate change, but Madhya Pradesh has taken a concrete step to deal with it.”
This mass-planting event will help in creating awareness of the government’s colossal nation-wide plan to make India green again. At the Paris Climate Change Conference, India pledged to increase forest cover to 95 million hectares (235 million acres) by year 2030. India’s government is putting forward $6.2 billion for this effort.
Other states in India are also taking similar initiatives to create public awareness towards reforestation. Kerala had planted more than 10 million trees in June this year in 24 hours. Maharashtra will plant 40 million trees this year as part of a reforestation campaign
Source: digitaljournal.com