People from all walks of life, school children, and senior citizens meet every morning in any part of Kolkata city, the location of which is shared before every volunteer in advance through a WhatsApp group, and in no time, they resume the most important work and their mission together – Planting a Tree for future.
The idea of planting 7500 trees in 75 days from 2nd June 2023 to 15th August 2023 took center stage as the country is celebrating its 75th year of Independence with Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav. It first came up in the mind of four friends namely Pankaj Maloo, Ajay Mittal, Sushil Oshwal, and Vijay Agarwal, who has been planting trees every Sunday since Cyclone Amphan hit Kolkata and surrounding areas destroying around 50,000 trees.
Since then, they have planted and replanted more than 60,000 trees across the city and other parts of Bengal, gradually making it a movement with the support of good Samaritans. Furthermore when 75 days of continuous planting was decided and when they shared the idea on social media with a post ‘You can invite us to plant at any location around you, we will bring matured quality saplings of the variety you want for free’, the post went viral in no time and people support started to pour in.
Speaking to News Sense about the initiative, Pankaj Maloo said, “In June, we thought of plantation daily instead of weekly and we four started with this idea from June 2nd, people started joining us voluntarily. Now we have a huge force of 200 volunteers from children, youths, women, and senior citizens. ”
As the saying goes, if you are true to the mission and idea, support follows and this plantation drive in the Kolkata city is an example of sincerity and dedication towards the cause and idea. The Green Warriors won’t stop even after 15th August 2023, they’ll continue until they make the World ‘Green’.
