changeadminOn 9th July, India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, set a new record in the country by planting 37 crore (370 million) saplings.
This state-led initiative is part of Van Mahotsav, an annual week-long tree-planting festival celebrated in India during the first week of July. This year’s initiative brought people from all walks of life who planted trees and helped the state emerge as a national leader in reforestation and environmental conservation.
In a major step to enhance green cover in Uttar Pradesh, the state government launched a mega plantation campaign. Throughout the day, the state witnessed major plantation drives along expressways, highways, riverbanks, and barren lands to strengthen green infrastructure.
According to the government dashboard, by evening, about 370 million (37 crore) trees were planted by public institutions, citizens, NGOs, schools, and other organisations.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath addressed various public gatherings in different parts of the state to highlight the importance of growing trees to secure a better planet for future generations.
In his speeches, the Chief Minister has stressed the need to maintain climate balance and called for public participation in the ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam‘ campaign, an initiative launched by India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, in 2024. This campaign draws a parallel between the nurturing of nature by Mother Earth and the nurturing of human lives by our mothers.
The Chief Minister stated that India’s Prime Minister has set a target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070. To achieve this goal, India will have to extensively increase the green cover, and the Uttar Pradesh government is committed to doing so.
Chief Minister Adityanath emphasised that global warming poses a serious threat not just to wildlife but to humanity as a whole, as it will lead to problems like desertification, irregular rainfall, and droughts. Today, the global temperature is rising at an abnormal pace, and we have to wake up for the future of future generations.
He emphasised that Mother Earth can only be protected through environmental conservation, which requires increasing forest cover across the state. The Chief Minister said, “If we give life to a tree today, that tree will give us life in the future.” He emphasised the importance of planting trees, not just as a symbolic gesture, but as an investment in the health, environment, and survival of future generations.
Farmers are being encouraged to plant trees on their field boundaries as this will not interfere with their agricultural productivity. After five years, farmers will also be eligible for carbon credit benefits under this initiative, which can provide them with additional income.
Chief Minister stressed that farmers planting trees is not only environmentally significant but also financially beneficial. Under the carbon credit scheme, farmers in Uttar Pradesh received Rs 32.80 lakh last year, and this year, thousands of farmers will receive Rs 42.20 lakh.
Since 2017, every year during the Van Mahotsav, the forest department of the UP government facilitates a massive plantation exercise across the state. Five years later, it achieved the target of 1 billion trees. Further, until 2024, more than 200 crore (2 billion) saplings have been planted in the state and with this year’s addition, the total will increase to about 2.4 billion.
According to the Indian Forest Survey, between 2017 and 2024, Uttar Pradesh’s green cover increased by 5 lakh acres, and between 2021 and 2023, forest and tree cover grew by 1.38 lakh acres—a historic total rise of 3.38 lakh acres. The state now ranks second in the country in terms of green cover growth, with an increase in the forest coverage from 9% to 10%.
The state government is also taking steps for river rejuvenation and advocating tree plantation along the state rivers. Under the ‘Ek Janpad, Ek Nadi’ campaign, many rivers like Kukrail of Lucknow, Tilodki of Ayodhya, Loni of Prayagraj, Belan of Sonbhadra, Kanera of Jhansi, Peeli of Jaunpur, and Non of Kanpur have been revived.
As part of this year’s plantation initiative, every child born between 1 July and 7 July was given a ‘Green Gold Certificate’ along with a sapling. As the child grows up, that sapling will also grow, and when they reach adolescence, they will realise that the relationship with the environment is not just a matter of textbooks, but a responsibility of life.
The state has initiated an exercise to conserve and protect old and heritage trees of Uttar Pradesh, such as the Parijat Tree in Barabanki, Akshayvat, and the Baobab tree in Prayagraj.
The aim of the Uttar Pradesh government is not only to increase the number of saplings planted, but to give concrete form to the environmental concept, from the revival of extinct rivers to the conservation of natural water sources.
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