Government schools to plant trees equal to number of enrolments

JAIPUR: To raise awareness about the environment and encourage afforestation, Rajasthan education minister Govind Singh Dotasra on Monday announced that trees, equal to the number of enrolments in each school, will be planted by government schools in this session.
Education minister Govind Singh Dotasra has announced this initiative, called as 'Vraksha Mitra Abhiyan'. As per the minister, this initiative will spread awareness about environment conservation and trees will be planted in the name of newly enrolled students in that school.Dotasra tweeted on Monday, “We have started this drive to encourage the students about conservation of environment and to try and decrease dropouts by naming them ‘Vraksha Mitra’.”
The initiative is said to be inspired from Philippines, where the government had announced this year that every student studying in schools or colleges has to plant at least 10 trees before his/her graduation, to become eligible for a degree. The law has now been passed by the parliament and the trees planted should preferably be local species, suitable for the environment, location and topography.