India Has Planted Nearly 50 Million Trees In 24 Hours.

India is famous for its massive boom in population, rapid industrialisation, and poor air quality. But recently the country made headlines for different reasons. 

More than 800,000 volunteers took part in a mass tree-planting exercise in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh last week attempting to plant 50 million trees in 24 hours. 

The volunteers in total planted 49.3 million tree saplings from 80 different tree species, all sourced locally from nurseries in Uttar Pradesh.

Uttar Pradesh, India’s most populous state, made the Guinness World Records for the most trees planted in a single day, the previous record held by Pakistan, which planted 847,275 trees in a day in 2013. The trees were planted along highways, railroad tracks, small roads, and publicly owned forests.

Photo Credit: Rajesh Kumar Singh

The timing couldn’t be any more necessary, with 6 out of the top 10 most polluted cities in the world coming from India. Planting 50 million trees is a start, but there’s certainly a lot more work to be done to regain some semblance of clean air within India’s cities. Many other cities around the world should use this as motivation for similar campaigns for reforestation.

Way to go India. 

Via: National Geographic