India plans to increase green cover with 1.4 billion new trees

India’s Vice President, Jagdeep Dhankhar, urged every Indian to plant at least one tree each in the next year as part of a massive national campaign to increase green cover and fight climate change.

Speaking at an International Climate Summit yesterday in New Delhi, Dhankhar said India could have 1.4 billion new saplings, equivalent to India’s population, in the next 365 days if every citizen heeded a call under an ongoing “Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam” campaign.

Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam, which translates from Hindi as “One Plant in Mother’s Name,” is a campaign launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 5, observed as World Environment Day, to increase forest cover across India.

“Mother” symbolically refers to Mother Earth. “This is great for our quest towards sustainable development,” Modi said on that occasion while planting a tree at a public park in New Delhi and setting an example.

Dhankhar said One Plant in Mother’s Name “is not just a slogan. It is an evolutionary step, a step that will ensure that 1.4 billion people will plant trees every year. It will have geometric, positive and cascading impacts. It will help us deal with an existential problem.”

The Punjab-Haryana-Delhi Chamber of Commerce and Industry organised the Climate Summit, at which Dhankhar spoke. The summit's theme was Energy Security, Food Security, and Decarbonisation.

The Vice President urged participants to “work together, leveraging our strengths to create a world that is not only resilient to climate change but also thriving in harmony with nature.”