India’s most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, has recently become a spectator to a new World record, set by its residents. Indian volunteers have planted a whopping 50 million tree saplings in a commitment to reforest India.
The 24-hour event took place on July 11th, where more than 800,000 people from Uttar Pradesh took part in planting trees around India’s northern states.
The previous record is held by Pakistan, which planted 847,275 trees in a day in 2013.
The effort is part of the commitment India made at Paris Climate Conference in December 2015. In the agreement, signed on Earth Day 2016, India agreed to spend $6 billion to reforest 12 percent of its land (bringing total forest cover to 235 million acres by 2030, or about 29 percent of the country's territory).
Trees sequester carbon dioxide from the air, thereby reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. India has experienced substantial loss of its forest cover over the past few centuries, as people cut down trees for firewood, pasture, and to make room for development.
Officials also hope the trees will improve air quality in India, which suffers from some of the worst in the world. Trees can help remove some pollutants from the air.
Article originally published in National Geographic
Image Credit: ecowatch.com
