Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday, 27 July 2026 took to X to express pride over Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioning Ahmedabad's Bhadaj area in his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat, where the PM highlighted a reported world record of planting over 3.5 lakh saplings in a single hour.

Shah posted in both Hindi and Gujarati, writing: 'Sabhi Ahmedabadwasiyon ke liye garv ki baat hai' ('It is a matter of pride for all residents of Ahmedabad') that the Prime Minister acknowledged the feat during Mann Ki Baat. The record was set at Bhadaj, a locality in Ahmedabad, Gujarat.

Context

Mann Ki Baat is a monthly radio address launched by Prime Minister Modi in October 2014. The programme has frequently spotlighted citizen-led environmental initiatives, community plantation drives, and climate awareness campaigns from across the country. An acknowledgement in Mann Ki Baat typically lends national visibility to local efforts and is seen as a significant endorsement from the highest executive office.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat's largest city, has a documented history of community-driven urban greening programmes. The Bhadaj event, where volunteers reportedly planted more than 3,50,000 saplings within 60 minutes, represents one of the most ambitious single-session plantation drives undertaken in an Indian city.

Policy Backdrop

The plantation drive aligns with India's Green India Mission, launched in 2014, which aims to expand forest and tree cover and restore degraded ecosystems across states. India has also committed to ambitious afforestation targets under its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement, pledging to create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent through forest and tree cover by 2030.

Large-scale, record-oriented plantation events have become a recurring feature of state-level environmental campaigns, serving both ecological and mobilisation purposes. Gujarat has featured prominently in such drives, with state administration actively encouraging public participation in urban forestry initiatives.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary stakeholders are the residents and volunteers of Ahmedabad who participated in the Bhadaj plantation event. A mention in Mann Ki Baat can catalyse replication of such drives in other cities, creating a peer-recognition dynamic among states competing to demonstrate environmental commitment.

Environmental experts and urban planners note that the long-term value of such events depends on sapling survival rates and sustained post-plantation care. Mass plantation records gain ecological credibility only when follow-up monitoring confirms that a meaningful proportion of the planted saplings take root and mature into trees.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to whether civic bodies in Ahmedabad release official data on sapling survival rates from the Bhadaj event, a metric that environmental groups and policymakers increasingly treat as the true measure of plantation drive success. Future episodes of Mann Ki Baat may revisit the record if follow-up assessments show strong outcomes, potentially positioning Gujarat's model as a template for urban greening nationwide.