By IANS,
Ahmedabad : Members of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), popularly known as Amul, will plant 6.5 million saplings on Independence Day Aug 15 to preserve the environment.
“Sixty-five lakh (6.5 million) trees will be planted on a single day on Independence Day to preserve the environment. It is planned that each farmer of the dairy cooperative would plant three trees,” B.M. Vyas, managing director of the co-operative, said.
This novel ecological venture is a continuation of the process initiated last year Aug 15. The mission of planting trees per member was coordinated by around 12,600 village dairy cooperative societies comprising 13 member unions of GCMMF.
Farmer members had planted 1.9 million saplings trees across 19 districts of Gujarat.
After six months, it was found that of the total planted trees nearly 50 percent had survived.
According to statistics of the forest survey of India, Gujarat has lost close to 100 sq km of forest area due to human activity. This is 13 percent of the national loss of 728 sq km of forest area.