The central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has set a new Guinness World Record after 1.5 million volunteers planted over 66 million tree saplings in only 12 hours along the Narmada river.
Their effort bested the state of Uttar Pradesh’s previous world record when 800,000 participants had planted 50 million trees in just one day in July 2016.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, boasted the achievement saying: “I am extremely proud to happily share that people of Madhya Pradesh successfully planted 6.63 Crore saplings today.” One crore is 10 million.
A press release for the occasion reported that the mass-planting event aimed to raise awareness for the “make India green again” plan. At the climate conference in Paris, India pledged to increase forest cover to 95 million hectares (235 million acres) by the year 2030 and is putting $6.2 billion towards the effort.
I am extremely proud to happily share that people of Madhya Pradesh successfully planted 6.63 Crore saplings today. #MPPlants6CroreTrees pic.twitter.com/5jlJcApomi
— ShivrajSingh Chouhan (@ChouhanShivraj) July 2, 2017
“I am greatly indebted to all who are planting trees today,” Chouhan added. “We will be contributing significantly to saving nature. By participating in a plantation, people are contributing their bit to climate change initiatives and saving the environment.”
Image credit: Shivraj Singh Chouhan
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