Over 2.6 million trees planted in India in 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic

New Delhi: For most of us, 2020 was the 12 months of reckoning when a world pandemic compelled everybody to pause and reassess our relationship with nature. But for rural communities, it was a time of acute financial misery, unemployment and untold hardship. During this unprecedented time, one social enterprise was not simply greening denuded tracts of group land and replenishing water our bodies but in addition supporting rural communities to earn their livelihood with dignity. 

Over 2.6 million trees had been planted in 2020 with the assistance of locals and migrants that had been hit exhausting by reverse migration. This manner, they not solely acquired fast employment alternatives however may additionally extract advantages from the fruit, fodder and different forest produce by promoting the surplus quantity in instances to return.

Plantation drives additionally improved the atmosphere in tangible methods. Water tables had been anticipated to rise as a result of rising vegetation, conflicts between people and animals had been decreased, and villagers may develop cheap fodder for his or her cattle as a substitute of getting to purchase it. In completely different states of India, native species of trees had been planted in collaboration with company companions for the advantage of native topography and communities. Thousands of people throughout the globe additionally participated in the plantation by nearly adopting these trees and utilizing the distinctive eTreeCertificates® for sustainable gifting. Near Sariska Tiger Reserve, Dalma Wildlife Sanctuary and numerous different nationwide sanctuaries and reserve forests, rising extra trees have helped the animal habitats to thrive.

Gram Pradhan Devendra Singh shares how plantation drives close to Dalma Wildlife Reserve helped the agricultural communities, “Not only have the trees helped to stop the elephants from raiding our crops,  the improved ecosystem gives economic sustenance to villagers. Not to mention, employment opportunities to those who need it most.”

Supervisor Surinder Mahto provides, “After the hardship inflicted by COVID-19,  the poverty-stricken villagers are finally getting economic sustenance. In my village, here in Jharkhand, over 150 men and women are working in the plantation drive and getting extensive support to earn their living. At a time like this, this work has been of great help to us. Also, the plants will not just help us by providing us with fodder, crops and other produce in the future but also improve the environment. I work here as the supervisor and oversee all the work. Once the plantation work is done, the villagers will continue to take care of the trees and protect them from any foreseeable danger.”

Bikrant Tiwary, the CEO of Grow-Trees.com, the organisation behind this motion, says, “We are pleased that regardless of difficulties in 2020, we prolonged our umbrella of tasks to 23 states of India, helped rural communities in their time of want, and generated about 200,000+ workdays for them. We are hopeful of continuous our efforts with much more willpower in 2021 and intention to plant 7 million trees in the approaching monsoon. What has been most rewarding about this whole course of is that at a time when farming and plantation have turn out to be largely mechanised, Grow-Trees.com was in a position to present livelihood alternatives to pandemic hit villagers by participating them in work that not simply advantages them but in addition the atmosphere they reside in. “

Grow-Trees.com will proceed to help communities in want whereas additionally offering people and corporates with the chance to plant trees in public lands, close to wildlife habitats, communal holy locations, faculties and government-owned deforested or denuded areas. During the pandemic, nonetheless, this work acquired an excellent larger social dimension. Over  400 households close to plantation websites in Maharashtra, had been supplied with dry ration kits that had been adequate for about 64,000 meals. Training applications in fishery and bee-keeping expertise had been additionally ignited to generate fast employment avenues. In Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, previous water our bodies had been expanded and new ones had been constructed to facilitate the every day wants of the agricultural group members, home cattle and different stray animals in the areas.

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