India Planted Almost 50 Million Trees in 24 Hours

Trees, please! The world has been crying out for more trees for pretty much as long as we can remember. And why? Well, trees are the essence of life. Think about what a tree represents – strength, solidity, adaptability, life. These are all elements that we look for in ourselves as humans and our societies.

So, why is it that we are not being careful and gentle with our tree population? Indeed, there are estimated to be around 3 trillion trees in the world. While this may sound like a lot, consider that we are thought to kill between 3-6 billion trees per year.

Yes, we need a lot of what trees provide, but that’s why we need to plant more. We have to replace what we take and ensure the future generations can enjoy trees. And India is quickly becoming the pioneers of this. It stands to reason that one of the world’s emerging economies should come up with an innovative goal for improving the tree population. But that doesn’t make it any less impressive!

The magical faraway land has transformed itself in a 24-hour period! India is traditionally a smoggy and polluted nation. There is great opulence and lavish lifestyle in India, but there is also abject poverty. The good new is, the grass is looking a little greener for everyone now that there is such a pronounced addition of trees.

On Monday, July 11th of this year, the world sat up and took notice. India showed its hand and facilitated a record-breaking attempt. This was ostensibly to highlight the issues of conservation and climate change. More than 800,000 people from Uttar Pradesh bandied together and planted a little shy of 50 million trees in 24 hours!

This smashed the previous world record of 847,275 trees held by Pakistan. And it sets a fascinating precedent for the rest of the world. If India can manage that volume, think about what more developed nations like the USA and the UK could achieve.

We know how much people are removing toward a greener way of life now, and that’s great. And this is a big plan by the government to facilitate a greener direction for India as a nation.

There may be those out there, our new President-elect included, who think climate change is a myth. But we need to get real about the fact that we are harming our planet. But it’s not too late! There is always something we can do to try to improve the situation. We can, and should, get involved in the tree planting process ourselves. Why not take inspiration from India, and plant some trees each year? Earth Day (April 22nd) would be the perfect time to do this.

Think about it, there are around 7 billion people on Earth. If each of us planted one tree a year that would be 7 billion trees. So we’d be giving back 1 billion more than we’d be taking every year. Planet Earth would be thankful, and we’d improve our world as a result.

Even countries with high industrialization and pollution, like China and Mexico, could do this. India has grown rapidly in recent years, and the influx in population and industry has led to it listing 6 of the top 10 most polluted cities on Earth! Luckily, the Indian government isn’t passive, and they have put forward over $6 billion dollars to combat the problem. These 50 million trees are merely the start; the country has big plans for the future!

At the Paris Climate Change Conference earlier in the year, India pledged to increase its forest cover to 235 million acres by 2030. This is a pretty good start to proceedings, and hopefully others will follow suit.

It’s so important to keep the tree population of the world happy and healthy. You probably underestimate just how important trees actually are. And you might even be wondering why you should go to the effort of planting more. Well, here are a few great reasons why it’s so important to plant trees:

Trees clean the air by absorbing pollutants.

They provide oxygen, which all human life needs to breathe!

They absorb carbon dioxide, the main contributor to climate change.

Trees can actually conserve energy.

They improve mental, physical and cognitive health.

They provide a food supply, i.e. fruit.

Trees boost the aesthetic appeal of a property or neighborhood.

So, you can see the huge benefits that trees have to society and to us as individuals. They are a crucial part of our lives and they help the environment. A world without trees would be a sorry place to live. And, by following the example India have set, we can make sure we avoid heading down that path.

Climate change is a real problem, and it’s not one we can ignore – despite what our President-elect may think! So, it’s essential that we follow the example of nations like India, and try to plant more trees. These will help to make the world a better place and prevent climate change from ruining the globe for future generations.