The Chief Minister's Office of Chhattisgarh on Saturday, 6 June 2026 called on residents of the state to participate in the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam campaign for 2026-27, framing tree plantation as the foremost responsibility citizens owe to future generations. The post, shared in Hindi, declared: 'हरियाली का विस्तार, बेहतर भविष्य का आधार' ('Expanding greenery is the foundation of a better future'), and urged the public to ensure their participation in what it called a 'पुनीत अभियान' — a 'sacred mission' — of nature conservation.

Context

The Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam campaign — translating to 'One Tree in Mother's Name' — was originally launched by the Government of India in 2024 to expand national tree cover through mass public participation. The initiative asks citizens to plant a tree and dedicate it to their mother, combining environmental action with an emotional and cultural appeal that has resonated widely across Indian states. Chhattisgarh, a central Indian state that holds one of the country's larger forest areas, has consistently aligned its local plantation drives with centrally sponsored afforestation programmes. The state government's decision to mobilise participation for a 2026-27 phase signals the continuation of this alignment into the new annual cycle.

Policy Backdrop

India's afforestation agenda is anchored in multiple overlapping frameworks, including the Green India Mission and annual van mahotsav drives, all aimed at reversing forest degradation and meeting climate commitments. State-level adaptations of these missions have become a standard mechanism through which governments translate national targets into ground-level action. For Chhattisgarh, forest cover is not merely an ecological asset but an economic and cultural one — the state's tribal and forest-dependent communities rely directly on woodland health for livelihoods, non-timber forest produce, and water security. Plantation campaigns that improve survival rates and expand green corridors therefore carry consequences well beyond symbolic gestures.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of a successful campaign are Chhattisgarh's residents, particularly the forest-dependent communities concentrated in the state's interior districts. Increased tree cover supports groundwater recharge, moderates local temperatures, and provides long-term livelihood resources. Citizen participation is the central variable in campaigns of this design. By framing the act of planting a tree as both a personal tribute to one's mother and a civic duty toward future generations, the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam model attempts to convert passive awareness into active enrolment at scale.

What's Next

With the 2026-27 campaign window now publicly announced, attention will shift to official plantation drives, district-level targets, and the mechanisms put in place to track sapling survival — a metric that has historically determined whether such campaigns deliver lasting ecological gain or remain headline events. Participation figures and verified green-cover data from this cycle will be the measure of the initiative's real-world impact.