Igniting Mind to plant one crore saplings in Odisha by 2030

BRS leader and former MP Joginapally Santosh Kumar and others at a sapling planation programme in Odisha on Monday.

The Green India Challenge (GIC), the brainchild of BRS leader and former Rajya Sabha member Santosh Kumar Joginapally, has set an ambitious goal to plant and nurture one crore saplings in Odisha by 2030.

On the second day of the campaign, students at SJ College in Kaipadar, Khurdha district, planted over 1,000 saplings. The event followed official launch of the campaign by Odisha Legislative Assembly Speaker Surama Padhy at Government High School in IRC Village, Bhubaneswar, on Monday.

Participating in the event, Dillip Srichandan, known as the “Tree Man of Odisha”, stressed the importance of collaborative efforts to enhance government reforestation initiatives.

Explaining the reason for choosing Odisha, Mr. Santosh Kumar said Odisha with 3.47% population of India was releasing 9.4% of gas emissions, and there is a need to cut it down by planting trees. So far the Green India Challenge has planted 19.5 crore trees over the last 8 years, he said Co-founders of Igniting Minds, Karunakar Reddy and Raghava Sanjeevula, were present at the event.