The rainy season is going on in our beloved great country India, in this rainy season, the central and state governments have been running a large-scale plantation campaign every year for the last several years. During this time, records are made every year by planting billions of saplings in the country. This year also, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has started a very important campaign to save lives with ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’. At the same time, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has made a tremendous start to ‘Ped Lagao Ped Bachao Abhiyan 2024’ by planting 36.50 crore saplings in a single day and again creating a new record, giving a very positive message to the general public of the state and the country. He has done a great job to explain the importance of trees to the people in time by planting a large number of saplings.
In the same series of beautification of the earth, plantation is being done in different parts of the country this year too. In this fierce competition of plantation, new records are being made every day in different states. But hardly any department is ready to think that the government target of plantation in hot sun, dry land is being fulfilled for decades, but rarely have these departments and people doing plantation looked back to see what is the condition of the plants planted by them on the ground. Because if even a quarter of the plants were alive, then so much plantation has been done on the land of India in the last few decades that dense forests would have been prepared in the empty places in the country. Which is not visible anywhere far and wide. On the contrary, in the blind race of development, trees are rapidly disappearing from houses, enclosures, fields, barns, chak roads, small and big roads, dams and canal tracks in the country. If we want to see an example of this with our own eyes, we can see the cutting of huge decades old trees on both banks of the hundreds of kilometres long Ganganahar that originates from Haridwar in Uttarakhand.
But the way the scorching heat is showing its fierce form to all of us year after year, we all have to understand in time that just as our body needs a balanced diet in sufficient quantity for nutrition, in the same way, trees and plants are required in sufficient quantity as a decoration of the earth to save the biodiversity and natural structure of the earth and to keep the environment clean. We all have to understand in time that trees only make arrangements for breathing which is very important for our life, trees work to make the environment of the earth conducive to our life by providing oxygen for a long time, improving the quality of air. Trees only work to control the process of climate change by improving the climate. Every tree in its life cycle plays a very effective role in arranging pure oxygen for every living being on earth as well as conserving water on earth for life, trees are the protectors of rivers, waterfalls and various types of water sources. Trees prevent soil erosion in plains and mountains during rains and floods. Trees are an effective natural medium to conserve soil and provide opportunities for new life to arise in their shade on this wonderful earth. Therefore, the system of the country and all of us have to understand that we should not consider our work complete by merely planting trees, but we should take care of the plants and keep them alive. Only then will the earth be adorned with a wonderful and divine beauty once again, people will get relief from extreme heat, air pollution etc. and the precious biodiversity on earth will get an environment to flourish continuously.
– Deepak Kumar Tyagi
Advocate, freelance journalist, columnist and political analyst
