More than 1.5 million government officials, students, homemakers and others planted a total of 66,750,000 tree saplings in the central Indian state in a plantation area encompassing 24 districts of the Narmada river basin.
The previous record was set in July 2016 by another Indian state, Uttar Pradesh, where 800,000 volunteers planted nearly 50 million trees in the span of 24 hours. Different nurseries from around Madhya Pradesh supplied two dozen varieties of plants for the new record.
"I am greatly indebted to all who are planting trees today," State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, who took part in the planting, said. "We will be contributing significantly in saving nature. By participating in a plantation, people are contributing their bit to climate change initiatives and saving the environment," India.com reported.
"I am overwhelmed to witness the enthusiasm of volunteers planting trees at Amarkantak," he later wrote on Twitter.
Chouhad also posted to the social media platform saying, "By planting trees we are not only serving Madhya Pradesh but the world at large," Indian Express reports.
The massive planting effort is part of a $6.2-billion government initiative aimed at making India more green, as New Delhi made a pledge at the Paris Climate Change Conference to increase forest coverage by 235 million acres by the year 2030.
Similar reforestation efforts are underway in other Indian states to help drive public awareness. Maharashtra’s campaign seeks to plan 40 million trees this year, while Kerala planted more than 10 million trees in June alone.
