Encouragement for Reforestation: The Gujarat State Forest Department and an Ahmedabad-based NGO have launched an innovative initiative to encourage school students to plant and care for about 45,000 trees. This comes at a time when the world’s total amount of forest cover is declining and environmentalists have emphasised the urgent need to increase it.
As part of the “One Child One Tree” project, the Dr. KR Shroff Foundation (KRSF) has recruited kids from 200 different schools in the Sabarkantha and Arvalli districts to help plant the trees.
In both of these districts, officers at various positions in the primary education and forest departments support the programme. Children have so far planted about 25,000 trees as part of this effort.
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“The project’s goal is to get kids involved in environmental conservation by having them plant trees and give them responsibility for the trees by having them care for the trees. Each student will plant one tree, whether it be on the school grounds, in their community, or close to their residence, and will eventually take care of the tree, providing daily care such as watering and nurturing to ensure its survival, according to KRSF President Uday Desai.
As part of a pilot initiative, KRSF and the forest department planted about 4,000 trees the previous year. These trees have a 93% survival rate.
The state government has also created a portal as a part of encouragement for reforestation where images recording the various stages of the tree plantation and its growth are periodically published in order to ensure that the project is guided in the right path once the trees have been planted. This promotes a high rate of tree survival and assists in tracking the project’s progress at various points.
