Will India smash world records in tree planting feat?

More than 800,000 people headed out on Monday to plant the saplings at designated spots around Uttar Pradesh hoping to get into Guinness World Records for the most trees planted in a day

Indian women plant saplings on the outskirts of Allahabad, India on July 11, 2016 as hundreds of thousands of people in the state of Uttar Pradesh sought to plant 50 million trees over the next 24 houShow more

LUCKNOW // Hoping to smash world records, hundreds of thousands of Indians jostled for space in Uttar Pradesh on Monday in a bid to plant 50 million trees over 24 hours.

Officials distributed millions of saplings to be planted across India’s most populous state. Besides helping India’s efforts to increase its forest cover, they are also aiming to get into Guinness World Records for the most trees planted in a day. The current record is 847,275, set in Pakistan in 2013.

More than 800,000 people — including students, lawmakers, government officials, housewives and volunteers from non-profit organisations — headed out on Monday to plant the saplings at designated spots along country roads and highways, rail tracks and forest lands.

Uttar Pradesh’s top elected official, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, said that planting 50 million trees would raise awareness and enthusiasm about afforestation and environmental conservation.

“The world has realised that serious efforts are needed to reduce carbon emissions to mitigate the effects of global climate change. Uttar Pradesh has made a beginning in this regard,” Mr Yadav told volunteers in the city of Kannauj, 250 kilometres south-west of the state capital, Lucknow.

India’s government is encouraging all 29 states to start tree-planting drives to increase the country’s forest cover as part of commitments made at last year’s climate change summit in Paris.

The government has designated more than US$6.2 billion (Dh22.8bn) for tree-planting across the country, in keeping with its pledge to push India’s forest cover to 95 million hectares by 2030.

In Lucknow’s Kukrail Reserve Forest, eighth-grader Shashwat Rai said he was planting a “peepal”, using the local name for the fig species Ficus religiose.

“I’ve read in a book that this tree releases maximum oxygen,” Rai said. “There is so much pollution in the city, we need trees that produce oxygen.”

Rai said he would be checking on the tree frequently. “I don’t want this plant to die,” he said.

The long-term survival of trees planted in such mass campaigns remains a concern, officials said.

The sites where the trees have been planted would be monitored through aerial photographs taken at regular intervals to check how many of the saplings were thriving, according to senior forest official Sanjeev Saran.

Usually, only 60 per cent of saplings survive, with the rest succumbing to disease or lack of water, officials said.

Meanwhile, auditors from Guinness World Records were moving around in the state to check on the numbers. “We are trying to maintain full transparency,” Mr Saran said.

“They are out in the field and are supervising the plantation drive,” he said. “We do not know who they are or where they are at this point in time. They are working incognito, and this suits us.”

Last year, Uttar Pradesh entered Guinness World Records for the largest distribution of saplings by donating more than 1 million trees that were planted at 10 locations in the state.

* Associated Press