The
central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh set a new Guinness World Record after
1.5 million volunteers planted more than 66 million tree saplings in just 12
hours along the Narmada River. The effort bested the state of Uttar Pradesh’s
previous record-breaking feat, when 800,000 participants planted 50 million
trees in one day in July 2016.
Shivraj
Singh Chouhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, boasted the achievement:
“I am extremely proud to happily share that people of Madhya Pradesh
successfully planted 6.63 Crore saplings today.” One crore is 10 million.
According
to a press release for the occasion, the aim of the mass-planting event was to
raise awareness for the nation’s “make India green again” plan. At the Paris
climate conference, India pledged to increase forest cover to 95 million
hectares (235 million acres) by year 2030 and is putting $6.2 billion towards
the effort.
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