Needed: A billion trees
India Needs a Billion Trees.
The more the environment balance tips, the more it is
becoming clear that tree-planting is the only way to address climate change and
the ills of greenhouse gases (GHGs). Statistics reveal that it is only tree
planting on a large scale that will make any dent in the mounting GHG numbers.
Afforestation is emerging as the best “technology” to battle climate change.
A
recent report by Oxford University says that between now and 2050, planting
trees and improving soil quality are two “most promising” technologies to
address climate change.
We at Sustainable Green Initiative are committed to
increasing the green cover and become one of the active partners in fighting
climate change. Since our inception in 2012 we have planted and are nurturing over 325,000 trees in 75 locations across West Bengal, Odisha, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra in India. Many of them are in extremely polluted regions
of metros such as Kolkata, Delhi, Bengaluru and Gurgaon.
After all, we can’t stop taking those flights, can we? Neither
will the manufacturing units simply stop growing, owing to the growth
commitment they have made to their respective economies. There is no question
of stopping the use of fossil fuels either, is there? Making renewable energy
consumption a priority is a far cry still.
Be it compensatory forestation by engineering, cement,
pharma and other sectors with a large carbon footprint, or Central and state
governments’ commitment to increase the green cover, tree planting is here to
stay. Creating, recreating or protecting forest lands where new trees are
constantly growing in place of old ones, creates a “sink” of carbon, thus
sequestering the carbon footprint to a large extent. Consider this, for
instance; the mangrove forests of Sundarbans, West Bengal, store around 4.15
crore tones of carbon dioxide in an area of about 2,118 sq km. Research also
shows that with the mangroves under threat, this carbon sequestering is fast
decreasing.
Sustainable Green Initiative, a social enterprise in the voluntary tree planting space was set up in 2012 with the sole objective of planting trees to fight hunger, poverty and climate change. We continue to look for active support and partnership with
government bodies and organizations to achieve the target of One Billion Trees.
At present, our planting initiatives include:
- 11,000 fruit trees in village Ghaghas of Nuhu district, Haryana. This was done with the support of PublicisLive.com to offset the carbon footprint of the World Economic Forum India Summit.
- 21,000 fruit trees across ten villages - Gharrot, Chainsa, Kherli Jita, Dhiranki, Mithaka, Khilluka, Malayi, Andhroli, Pachanka, Jharali in Palwal district Haryana. A Hero Happy Earth Initiative.
- 43,000 fruit and timber trees across two BSF campus in Delhi and Gurgaon.
- 51,000 fruit trees in the Bundelkhand region of Lalitpur district in Uttar Pradesh, India.
- 11,000 fruit trees including 1,000 coconut trees in the Bali Islands of the Sundarbans in West Bengal India.
- 21,000 fruit trees across four villages in the Mussoorie Hill range near BarlowGanj of district Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
- 2100 trees in Shastri Park: 15 acres off Kashmere Gate, Delhi.
- 1000 trees in Auxilium, Najafgarh, Delhi.
- 1600 trees in Anandashram, Gurgaon, Haryana.
- 1000 trees in BC Farm, Badshapur, Haryana.
- 200 trees Pratt Memorial School, Kolkata
- 152 trees in the Rabindra Sarobar, Kolkata, W Bengal.
- 3100 trees in Sports Authority of India, Eastern Region Complex, Kolkata, W Bengal.
- 1800 trees Auxilium, New Town, Kolkata, W Bengal.
- 3000 fruit trees in Ashabari, South 24 Paraganas, W Bengal.
To know how you can make a difference to the environment and help create sustainable livelihoods in marginal communities, write to us at trees@greening.in
