5th July 2020, New Delhi: In a bid to encourage citizens to become more responsible towards their environment, ‘Give Me Trees Trust’ has planted 8,000 trees amidst the lockdown – unlock process, while maintaining all the guidelines issued by the government. The organization primarily focused on Sorkha Village in Delhi NCR for this initiative. Since its inception, Peepal Baba has planted more than 20 million trees in partnership with around 55 corporate and government stakeholders.
Trees are the foundation of economic productivity for any country. According to a study, a single pollutant like bad ozone can lead to a net loss in primary productivity, because of the reduced plant and biomass production, and increased plant susceptibility to stress.
In addition, a diseased community, affected by air pollution produces an inefficient workforce, which works below its optimal level, and significantly lowers the margin between the output and input. IN fact, according to the 2016 data of the World Bank, the health toll of air pollution costs India around 8.5% of its GDP, or more than $560 billion (Chakraborty 2016).
Speaking about this, Mr. Prem Parivartan, also known as Peepal Baba, founder at Give Me Trees Trust, said, “It’s high time that we as citizens start taking action individually to protect our nature. Environmental degradation is not only showing its effects on our health, but also on the economy. If each one of us starts planting more trees, even if it is around their homes, it will significantly reduce the burden of pollution on our society. Instead of relying on the government and CSR initiatives, we must start practicing Citizen Environment Responsibility to plant more and more trees as a part of our fundamental duties”.
Governments across the world are already incurring significant costs on environmental remediation, and are now finally coming to terms with the fact that their stance on climate action is a matter of life or death. The budgets in the recent past for environmental remediation efforts have gone up significantly. In India, for instance, the Narendra Modi government allocated a staggering Rs 20,000 crore in 2014 to clean river Ganga under the Namami Gange Project (National Mission for Clean Ganga). It is against this backdrop that Mr. Prem Parivartan encourages the planting of trees to counter the growing ill effects of environmental degradation on our planet.
Worldwide lockdown had compelled the industrial bodies to take a pause on the destructive action towards nature. This has subsequently allowed mother earth to heal on its own. As a result, we saw air quality improving. The human race witnessed a clear sky regularly amidst lockdown. Give Me Trees Trust believes once the lockdown is lifted the pollution will automatically increase as the pressure on the human race to boost the economy will double up as before. Taking advantage of the lockdown and seeking support from the local authorities around Delhi NCR, the trust has planted 1000, 4000,1064, 2000 trees in Noida Sector 25, Noida sector 115, Haridwar and Lucknow respectively.