With no vacant land millions of trees are being planted every year
2025.01.17 (Vrindavan Today News): Every year millions of trees are planted in all parts of India, during the monsoon season ,yet the ground reality tells a different story.
According to the 2023 report of the Central Government’s Forest Department, India’s forest area increased by 1,445 square kilometers between 2021 and 2023, taking the country’s total green cover to 25.2%.
While this claim is comforting, the reality is much more complex. States like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Mizoram have certainly recorded an increase in forest cover. But, another report shows that 46,000 square kilometers of forest land has been converted to non-forest use in the last decade.
In cities like Agra, the story is grimmer. Lakhs of trees have been felled in the last 30 years. They have not been compensated till date. The forests of Keetham have shrunk, and conspiratorial efforts are on to reduce the area of the Soor Sarovar Bird Sanctuary and Wetland. In Vrindavan, hundreds of trees were felled overnight, and now the trees of Gadha Pada Malgodown have disappeared, while the Taj Trapezium Zone is an environmentally sensitive area.
In our state, in the last 25 years, crores of saplings have been planted every monsoon season, but what we see are mostly invasive species like Vilayati Babul. Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav even set a Guinness World Record by planting 5 crore saplings in a single day. Current Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath set a target of planting 9 crore saplings in 2018-19, promising medicinal and religiously important plants across the state. But what was the result? Reliable data on plant survival rates and fund utilization is scarce. Every year, the target for tree plantation increases, while there is no vacant land. Last year, the target was 22 crore trees. However, these efforts are often hasty and poorly planned, leading to the premature death of most of the saplings.
Officials make tall claims, but Uttar Pradesh’s green cover is just 9 per cent, far below the national target of 33 per cent.
A green activist in Agra commented, “These are paper trees that exist only in government files. The ground reality is completely different. Large-scale construction projects have wiped out greenery, leaving little space for trees. In the eco-sensitive Taj Trapezium Zone, green cover ranges from just 1.28% in Mathura to 6.26% in Agra. The issue is not how many saplings are planted each year, but whether they survive and thrive for at least three years. Additionally, the focus is on planting diverse species suited to local conditions to promote biodiversity.
If 25 crore saplings are to be planted at 10-foot intervals in a single day, does Uttar Pradesh even have the space for such a massive campaign? Previous attempts have shown how carelessly these campaigns are executed, with many saplings ending up in open fields or garbage dumps. Why waste money on such futile exercises?
The Yamuna and Agra-Lucknow Expressways, many Flyovers, the city’s inner ring road, and the widening of the national highway to Delhi have consumed vast tracts of green land, leaving the Taj Mahal struggling against dusty winds from the Rajasthan desert. The Supreme Court had directed the creation of green buffers to protect historical monuments from air pollution, but there has been little improvement in the Taj Trapezium Zone. Environmentalists warn that Agra’s shrinking green cover is a ticking time bomb.
Since 1996, the Supreme Court has repeatedly urged authorities to accelerate efforts to control air pollution in Agra by developing green belts. Environmentalists lament…
