Mission Green: Uttar Pradesh aims to plant 37 crore saplings in a day on July 9
The forest department alone completed advanced soil work at about 9000 locations a week before the drive. About 26 other departments are in the final stages of completing the work at an estimated over 1.5 lakh sites. Lucknow has 78 plantation sites.
Forest officials said on average, 1600 saplings will be planted in a one hectare area. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will plant saplings in Ayodhya and Azamgarh to mark the occasion. The mega plantation drive will begin at 6am and continue till the end of the day.
'The soil work has been done at plantation locations. Also saplings have reached the plantation locations,' said Deepak Kumar, mission director for the mega plantation drive.
Forest and other department staff, besides volunteers, will place saplings in pits and swiftly fill the soil around the pits to make the saplings stand firm, the officer explained.
Placed in biodegradable packs, the saplings need to be put inside the pits and have the roots covered with soil.
'This year, we have raised the target by two crore saplings. This is because the increase in plantation in previous years gave rise to the green cover by over 3 lakh acres. Our green cover is now at 9.96% of the total geographical area and Uttar Pradesh is ranked second among states where the forest and tree cover has gone up, as per India State of Forest Report (ISFR)-2023,' said Arun Kumar Saxena, U.P's forest, environment and climate change minister, on Monday.
Between 2017 and 2024, more than 204.92 crore saplings were planted across the state.
U.P's forest cover reached 15,045.80 sq km (6.24%), an increase of 118.43 sq km from 14,927.37 sq km (6.20%) recorded in ISFR-2021 report. The tree cover of the state was recorded at 8,950.92 sq km (3.72%) in the 2023 report while it was at 8,510.16 sq km (3.53%) in the 2021 report.
The participants will include 60,182 public representatives, 3.4 crore students, 2.24 crore farmers, 13,44,558 government employees, 4,69,900 advocates, 27,270 voluntary organizations and 15,000 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs).
The forest department has 1901 nurseries and 47.27 crore saplings, the horticulture department has 146 nurseries and 44 lakh saplings. There are 484 private nurseries and 3.17 crore saplings available among others.
The forest department will plant 1.14 crore saplings along roadsides. The Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority will plant 250,000 saplings along state expressways and Bundelkhand Expressway (1.2 lakh saplings).
Ministers to plant saplings across state
Ministers will lead the campaign across all 75 districts while senior administrative officers have been designated as district nodal officers for the mega plantation drive.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath will lead the plantation drives in Ayodhya and Azamgarh, accompanied by forest minister (Independent Charge) Dr Arun Saxena and minister of state for forests KP Malik.
Deputy CM Brajesh Pathak will plant saplings in Lucknow. Governor Anandiben Patel will participate in the campaign from Barabanki. Deputy CM Keshav Prasad Maurya will be in Meerut.
Cabinet ministers, ministers of state (Independent Charge), and ministers of state will lead the initiative across all 75 districts. Key assignments include cabinet ministers Suresh Khanna in Shahjahanpur, Surya Pratap Shahi in Ayodhya, Swatantra Dev Singh in Gorakhpur, Baby Rani Maurya in Aligarh, Chaudhary Laxmi Narayan in Mathura, Jaiveer Singh in Mainpuri, Dharampal Singh in Bareilly, Nand Gopal Gupta 'Nandi' in Prayagraj, Anil Rajbhar in Azamgarh, Rakesh Sachan in Kanpur Dehat, AK Sharma in Jaunpur, Yogendra Upadhyay in Agra, Ashish Patel in Mirzapur, Dr Sanjay Nishad in Ambedkar Nagar, Om Prakash Rajbhar in Ghazipur, Dara Singh Chauhan in Deoria, Sunil Kumar Sharma in Ghaziabad, and Anil Kumar in Bijnor.
Among ministers of state (independent charge) Kapil Dev Agarwal will be in Muzaffarnagar, Ravindra Jaiswal in Varanasi, Sandeep Singh in Etah, Gulab Devi in Sambhal, Girish Yadav in Pratapgarh, Dharamveer Prajapati in Jhansi, Asim Arun in Kannauj, J.P.S. Rathore in Moradabad, Dayashankar Singh in Ballia, Narendra Kashyap in Hapur, Dinesh Pratap Singh in Rae Bareli, and Dayashankar Mishra 'Dayalu' in Chandauli.
3.5 crore saplings along riverbanks
The forest department aims to plant around 3.5 crore saplings along major rivers like the Ganga, Yamuna, Gomti, Ken and Betwa.
The campaign will span a 5-km stretch on either side of these rivers and is intended to enhance green cover, control pollution, conserve soil, and promote groundwater recharge.
According to the forest department's detailed plan, a total of 23,772.45 hectares will be covered.
The Yamuna river will see the highest number of saplings planted—9,678,330—followed by the Ganga with 5,480,994 saplings and the Betwa with 5,061,251. Large-scale plantations are also planned along the Saryu/Ghaghara, Gomti, Sai, Ken, Rapti, Son, Ramganga, Chhoti Gandak, Chambal, and Hindon rivers.
Tree plantation along riverbanks will play a crucial role in reducing soil erosion and ensuring smoother river flow.
Heritage trees
Uttar Pradesh has protected and nurtured 948 century-old trees under the Heritage Tree Adoption Scheme. These heritage trees, spanning 28 species and spread across all 75 districts, have been recognised for their ecological, cultural and historical significance.
Varanasi leads with 99 heritage trees, followed by Prayagraj (53), Hardoi (37), Ghazipur (35), and Unnao (34). The list includes revered species like the Banyan (363 trees), Peepal (422 trees), Mango, Arjun, Shami, and Neem, as well as rare trees such as Adansonia and Pilu.
Some iconic trees include the mother trees of Dussehri mango (Lucknow) and Langra mango (Varanasi), the famous Bachan Tamarind of Fatehpur, the Bodhi tree of Sarnath, Peepal associated with the freedom struggle at Shahjahanpur's Ordnance Cloth Factory, Akshayvat tree inside Prayagraj Fort, Pilu tree in Ter Kadamba (Mathura), and Banyan trees in Gorakhnath temple (Gorakhpur), Janaki Kund (Chitrakoot), and Valmiki Ashram (Unnao).
38.71 lakh saplings to be planted in Lucknow
Divisional forest officer (Awadh range) Sitanshu Pandey said that the state capital has 78 plantation sites where 38.71-lakh saplings will be planted on July 9. The department has deployed 300 staff apart from the volunteers from various segments. Deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak will plant sapling at one of the locations during the day.
How to upload your photograph
While the forest and other departments will plant saplings and upload photographs, even common people can do the same. People can upload plantation photos on https://upforest.gov.in or https://upfd.in/upfdmedia/secure/login/login.aspx, or by scanning the QR code.
To geo-tag the images, participants must enable GPS on their mobile phones. These images will serve as a digital record of people's participation.
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