Let’s plant a sapling…. The beginning of the mass tree planting campaign
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan inaugurated the comprehensive tree planting campaign by planting a sapling of Kulamav at the Cliff House campus, Thiruvananthapuram.
The mass tree planting campaign, which will plant one crore tree saplings in the state under the leadership of the Haritha Keralam Mission, was inaugurated by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan by planting a sapling of Kulamav (Bucchnania barberi) at the Cliff House campus at Thiruvananthapuram. In the program held on the evening of June 5,2025 World Environment Day, V.K. Prashanth MLA, State Coordinator of the Nava Keralam Karma Padhathi and Vice Chairperson of the Haritha Keralam Mission, Dr. T.N. Seema, Biodiversity Board Chairman, Dr. N. Anilkumar, Associate Professor, Department of Botany, Thiruvananthapuram University College Dr. Preetha, Assistant Coordinator of Haritha Keralam Mission Abraham Koshy, Administrative Officer S. Indu, Assistant Coordinator of Nava Keralam Karma Padhathi T.P. Sudhakaran, officials of Haritha Keralam Mission and others participated. The Oru Tai Nadam (Let us plant a sapling) campaign is aimed at expanding the Pachathuruthu (green islet) project, which has been implemented by Haritha Keralam Mission since 2019, to more places and also at comprehensive tree plantation activities. The campaign pays special attention to planting saplings of rare and endangered trees. The saplings planted at Cliff House on the occasion of Environment Day, such as Kulamavu (Bucchnania barberi), Attupunna (Calophyllum apetalum), Undapine (Gymnacanthera canarica), Kambakam (Hopea ponga) and Ponnunjavul (Syzygium stocksii), fall under this category. As part of the campaign, a system of bio tagging these saplings is being implemented with the support of the Kerala Technological University to monitor their location and growth.
Haritha Keralam Mission, under the leadership of the chairpersons of the local self-government institutions, will form a management committee under the leadership of the Biodiversity Management Committee (BMC), environmentalists, agriculture officers and farmers, to maintain the saplings planted . Apart from schools, sapling exchange programme and tree planting activities will be organized in all educational institutions falling within the limits of local self-government bodies including colleges, polytechnics, ITIs, Anganwadis and others. Sapling planting will also be organized in the homes of Kudumbashree members, employment-guaranteed workers, and Haritha Karma Sena members. The vicinity of water bodies or roadsides can be selected for planting saplings. The campaign will be made more popular by organizing the exchange of tree saplings and planting them in available places among employees of commercial establishments in towns, as well as workers at auto, taxi, and other vehicle stands.