CM Bhupendra Patel Plants Trees in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar to Mark Modi's 25 Years
Synopsis
Key Takeaways
Forty-eight hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi completed 25 years in public life, Gujarat's landscape got a little greener — and the occasion carried genuine ecological weight. Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel led tree-plantation drives at Bhadaj in Ahmedabad and Oganj in Gandhinagar district on Thursday, 8 October 2026, under the 'Seva, Sankalp aur Samarpan Abhiyan' — a statewide campaign organised to mark the Prime Minister's silver jubilee in public service.
AMC's Mission Five Million Trees crosses the 50-lakh mark
The headline number from the day: the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has achieved its landmark target of planting 50 lakh (five million) trees under its flagship 'Mission Five Million Trees' programme. Chief Minister Patel described this as 'extremely joyful news' — and in a city that regularly bakes under summer temperatures exceeding 40°C, half a million new trees are more than a symbolic gesture.
The scale of the Bhadaj plantation is particularly notable. A dedicated green space called 'Trifala Van' — named after the traditional Ayurvedic trio of amla, haritaki, and bibhitaki — is being created at the site. Trifala Van is designed to serve a dual purpose: deepening the city's green cover while anchoring the plantation in a cultural and medicinal heritage familiar to most Gujarati families.
'Seva, Sankalp, Samarpan' — the campaign behind the saplings
The 'Sewa Sankalp Abhiyan' (Service and Resolve Campaign) is the BJP's nationwide programmatic response to PM Modi's 25-year public-life milestone. Across Gujarat, party workers, civic bodies, and government departments have been mobilised for service-oriented activities — from health camps to cleanliness drives — with tree plantation emerging as one of the most visible threads. The hashtags #EkPedMaaKeNaam (One Tree in Mother's Name) and #SevaSankalpAbhiyan accompanying the CM's post tie the local drive to a broader national green movement that PM Modi has championed since 2024.
#EkPedMaaKeNaam — literally 'plant one tree in your mother's name' — was originally launched by PM Modi as a participatory environmental initiative encouraging every citizen to dedicate a sapling to their mother, building an emotional bridge between personal affection and ecological responsibility. The Bhadaj and Oganj drives effectively embed that sentiment into a civic infrastructure project.
Bhadaj and Oganj: Two sites, one green message
Bhadaj sits on Ahmedabad's western periphery, an area that has seen rapid residential and commercial expansion over the past decade — making large-scale greening both urgent and consequential. Oganj, in Gandhinagar district, neighbours Gujarat's administrative capital, giving the plantation symbolic proximity to the state's seat of power. Chief Minister Patel participated personally at both locations, signalling that the drive was not a delegated formality but a political and environmental commitment the CM chose to own on camera.
Patel extended congratulations to all participants in what he called this 'Bhagirath karya' — a Gujarati idiom invoking the mythological King Bhagirath, who is credited with bringing the river Ganga to Earth through relentless effort — framing routine plantation work in the language of historic perseverance.