Bengaluru: World Environment Day is celebrated on the 5th of June every year. The first World Environment Day was celebrated in the year 1974 at Spokane, United States of America with the theme “Only One Earth.”
In the years that followed, World Environment Day has developed as a platform to raise awareness about the problems facing the environment such as air pollution, plastic pollution, global warming, deforestation, illegal wildlife trade, marine pollution. It has grown as the largest global platform for environmental public outreach, and celebrated by millions of people across the world.
Every year, World Environment Day is hosted by a different country, with a different theme to advocate environmental causes. The host for this year is Pakistan and the theme is “Ecosystem Restoration.”
Ecosystem restoration means assisting in the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed and also, conserving the ecosystems that are still intact. You can restore an ecosystem by greening your home, planting trees in a garden, a public space, a farm, business premises, either side of the roads, a school or a college, create a tiny or big forest, cleaning up a lake, river or a beach, cleaning up a park, stopping chemical pollutants- industrial wastes or other effluents from entering rivers and lakes, staging an online campaign to draw attention towards climate change or destruction of trees and forests; and what can be done to reverse the effect and how collectively or individually people can contribute towards protecting our ecosystem.
Environmentalist and the Founder of the Global Environment Movement One Tree by One Person, U S Moinuddin said, “Covid-19, has taught mankind the importance of oxygen for our survival. Families have struggled to get oxygen cylinders to save their near and dear ones, though willing to pay a large sum of money. Nature, is constantly providing us oxygen in abundance, absolutely free for our survival. Perhaps, this will motivate mankind to plant more trees, protect our natural resources and respect nature.”
ONE TREE BY ONE PERSON
One Tree by One Person, a revolutionary movement to make India and the world greener was introduced by Environmentalist U S Moinuddin in the year 2002. The agenda of this movement is to encourage tree planting and educate the masses about the role of trees in our ecosystem.
People love trees, but most of them do not make an effort to plant them as they get engrossed in their day-to-day activities. To make tree planting more realistic and easier, U S Moinuddin began to promote the idea of “One Tree by One person,” according to which, a person is required to plant at least one sapling during their lifetime and take care of it until it grows into a big mature tree. As of 2021 the population of Bangalore is 1.27 Crore, if every resident takes an initiative of planting one sapling, then the city will have over 1 Crore trees in addition to the trees that already exist. If every Indian takes an initiative of planting a sapling, then there would be 139 Crore trees. Likewise, if every person across the Earth plants a sapling, then there will be 7.9 billion trees in addition to the trees that already exist.
In overcrowded cities like Bengaluru and Mumbai how does one plant so many trees? That is the usual question asked by many. “Nature gives us varieties of trees. Where there is more space you can plant a Rain tree, Sausage tree, Melia Dubia, Tabebuia Rosea, Gulmohar, Peltophorum Pterocarpum(Copper Pod) Mango, Tamarind, Cannon Ball tree(Nagalinga) and other big trees, where there is less space you can plant Silver Oak, Honge, Singapore Cherry and other small and medium size trees.” Moinuddin answers.
This movement is attracting people of all age groups. Students across schools and colleges, office employees, housewives, factory workers and others have sworn to plant trees and make our environment healthy and beautiful. U S Moinuddin has been constantly meeting people and encouraging them to support this campaign where one can witness a Greener India and a Greener Earth. He has also planted a large number of saplings and also takes out rallies and distributes saplings for free.
One Tree by One Person is also inspiring people in Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, Bahrain, Poland, Russia, New Zealand and America.
“Global Warming is a serious problem; the Earth is becoming warmer and warmer as a result of the toxic gases generated from the vehicles, forest fires, factories and deforestation. As a result, the Polar ice caps can melt, rising the sea levels. When the sea levels rise, islands such as Lakshadweep, Maldives, and hundreds of other islands including the Southern part of India, which is a Peninsula can get submerged under water. Planting trees can slow down the global warming process to a very large extent.” Moinuddin further states.
With the concept of One Tree by One Person, the deserts can become green, the barren lands can become productive, the temperature in the cities will decrease, and the trees will attract rain replenishing the decreasing water table. This is one campaign that will truly make the Earth a greener place to live in.
One Tree By One Person is a vision oriented Movement. It is not about a single person or a group of people taking an initiative of planting trees, but it is about every person across the Earth actively participating in tree planting as responsible citizens of the planet, for a greener and safer Earth.
In the Photograph: Founder of One Tree By One Person U S Moinuddin
