Every year in June-July, a large-scale plantation drive is undertaken by the forest department with the active cooperation of various other government departments, NGOs, and private and public institutions. For the past few years, this drive has taken on the semblance of a single-day event by setting targets to plant crores of trees on a single day and thus beating previous records. Well, nothing wrong with it as the fact that plantation during the rainy season is done mainly so that nature can directly play a role in getting that sapling to take strong root and stay alive. All the rain that falls on it helps in its growth. But climate change is leading to changes in weather patterns. Now, if we set a date and plant 25 or 30 crore saplings on a dry day when it has neither rained properly days before nor would it shower for some days to come, how much chance will there be of the survival of the saplings thus planted? Such large-scale plantations, along highways, over bridges, and on the outskirts- as being claimed by the govt- need to be looked after very properly, which won't be possible without the natural assistance of the monsoons. Why? No matter how much you water the ground around the sapling, the harsh rays of the Sun are sure to wilt the newly planted green. Because it is coming directly from a nursery where it was kept with utmost care in a conducive environment, and has now been brought and planted on terrain still alien to it, hence it is at its most vulnerable. You can relate to it in this way: When you bring plants from nurseries and plant them, even after taking so good care, some of them may die because they are not able to adjust to the environment in your area. No other reason. Similar is the case with these 'drive-bred' plants. Plantation in a phased manner can yield better results as they can be better cared for. If it doesn't rain properly in the coming days, much of the effort and taxpayers' money might go to waste as even government orders can't make a sapling bloom. And, you will be a witness to wilting plants along all those national highways, riverbanks, and pavements.
There is another issue that needs a mention: A majority of plantation is done in rural areas and urban areas never actually benefit from such drives. Neither our footpaths nor our road dividers have any greenery left. We are living in a jungle of concrete. No one dares to get all the encroached areas freed from shopkeepers in a majority of public places and markets and do a plantation drive there. No one seeks the opinion of the common man if he wants to get trees planted in his locality. No one realises that it is the urban part that requires, urgently requires, an honest plantation drive. We are just informed that such a lot of saplings have been planted on the outskirts but we cannot visit all those places to see the ground reality. Also, from where does all that land come year by year? Where did tall trees previously planted in those very spots go? Are these massive plantation drives hiding ugly truths, like clearing of green patches and felling of trees for 'developmental activities' and mining activities in which stretches of green covers or forests and wetlands are given to private companies on lease to be used at will? Well, whatever the truth, we can only hope that most of the trees planted this time manage to evade the human axe and survive a failed monsoon!
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