Green Cheers, I hope all the Eco warriors are doing great and enjoying the holiday season. Today I would like to talk about the importance of Tree Plantation and how I practised it. Let¡¯s start by defining tree plantation Tree plantation is process of transplanting tree seedlings, generally for forestry, land reclamation, or landscaping purpose. It differs from the transplantation of larger trees in arboriculture, and from the lower cost but slower and less reliable distribution of tree seeds. Tree plantation has various positive affects on the environment and hence it¡¯s important for us to make sure that whenever we get the chance we must plant a sapling or plant of our choice. Let¡¯s look at some of the benefits of tree plantation. 1. Trees reduce the heat effect through evaporation that then causes cooling and reduces the amount of sunlight that reaches buildings. This happens in areas with large impervious surfaces, such as parking lots. 2. The very obvious one is Trees give off oxygen that we need to breathe. 3. Trees reduce the amount of water runoff, and hold the soil which reduces erosion 4. Many species of wildlife depend on trees for habitat. Trees provide food, protection, and homes for many birds and mammals 5. Trees improve our air quality by filtering harmful pollutants such as ozone, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide. How can we do tree plantation, what steps can we take to initiate it. These questions might be coming in your mind. Let¡¯s look at some ways. 1. You can either plant solo, maybe in your surroundings like a terrace, a public park, a field or roadside or you might form groups and do plantation drives. 2. Form groups with your local community, family or relatives to buy saplings and start planting. 3. Find occasions like environmental day, birthdays, anniversaries to conduct these drives. 4. Arrange crowdfunding campaigns to source funds for doing these drives in a large scale. 5. Talk to government authorities, municipal corporations to carry them out in public places. 6. Organise them in your school if you cannot find a viable place to plant, School authorities always encourage positive actions from students. For e.g I did quite a few in my school. 7. Start a club in your school which promotes the importance of tree plantation and plan one day of the month to plant saplings where each student can bring a sapling of their like. e.g I was a part of the Nature club at my school, I conducted plantation drives, and we all students used to plant each month new saplings, I planted various saplings like neem and lemon and mango saplings 8. Use social media to bring attention to your plantation cause and get in touch with organisations that might partner with you for e.g Innerwheel and lions club Now let¡¯s talk about what I did as an Eco warrior, since my school days I was really active in nature conservation, I conducted plantation drives with Innerwheel club, did solo plantation as well, conducted awareness assembly in school and also took part in the annual nature festival organised in my city. I advocated for environmental protection through drawings, singing and what not. I have also been elected a SRHR coordinator for the tree plantation group in commonwealth youth alliance and I recently got in touch with a partner where I planted a couple of saplings and plan to plant a thousand sapling in the year 2021 as an Eco Generation ambassador. These are just few of the things that I have done as a part of my conservation journey, I will hope to share more in future. Green Cheers, Anoushka Sinha India
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