Uttar Pradesh: 25.5 million saplings planted in mass plantation drive, forest cover increases by 3% in past 4 years

On Sunday (July 4), about 25.5 million saplings were planted in the State of Uttar Pradesh to fight global climate change and reduce carbon emissions in the atmosphere.

As per reports, the day-long plantation drive was conducted in 68000 villages and 83000 forest sites. During the process, government officials, volunteers, lawmakers took part in the mass plantation drive. Several social organisations have planted a large number of ‘peepal’ trees in Lucknow.

The target of planting 250 million saplings was achieved within 12 hours, as per the UP government.

उत्तर प्रदेश ने 12 घंटे में 25 करोड़ पौधे लगा कर रिकॉर्ड बनाया है।

प्रदेश सरकार 05 वर्ष में 100 करोड़ पौधे लगा चुकी है। pic.twitter.com/OdAaI9ckgc

— Government of UP (@UPGovt) July 5, 2021

India has set a target to keep 1/3rd of its land under forest cover. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had launched the tree-planting drive about four years ago. According to state Forest Minister Dara Singh Chauhan, the forest cover in UP has increased by 3% (higher than the national average of 2.89%). A senior state forest official named Manoj Singh added, “We are committed to increasing the forest cover of Uttar Pradesh state to over 15% of the total land area in the next five years. In today’s campaign, over 100 million trees will be planted,”

The Uttar Pradesh government has shared a live dashboard where the number of saplings planted can be tracked. The dashboard can be accessed here.

However, the survival of saplings planted during such a drive remains a matter of concern. Reportedly, only 60% of such saplings survive while the rest die due to lack of water or disease. UP Forest Minister Dara Singh Chauhan informed that the survival rate of saplings has increased to 80% in the last 4 years due to better care and methods like geo-tagging of trees. The Indian government has directed all states to increase tree plantation drives as part of the commitments made during the 2015 Paris summit. An amount of $6.2 billion has been set aside to cover 95 million hectares of land with forests by 2030.