Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami on Monday, 15 June 2026 participated in a live tree plantation and cleanliness drive at the Purnagiri Temple in Khatima, Udham Singh Nagar, combining environmental outreach with one of the state's most prominent Shakti Peeth pilgrimage sites.

Context

The Chief Minister broadcast the event live on social media, sharing it under the caption 'LIVE: खटीमा, ऊधम सिंह नगर में स्थित पूर्णागिरी मंदिर में पौधारोपण एवं स्वच्छता अभियान' — translated as 'LIVE: Tree plantation and cleanliness campaign at Purnagiri Temple located in Khatima, Udham Singh Nagar.' The public broadcast underlines the administration's intent to use high-footfall religious venues as platforms for environmental messaging.

Purnagiri Temple is a revered Shakti Peeth dedicated to Goddess Purnagiri and draws lakhs of devotees annually, particularly during the spring and summer pilgrimage season. Its location in the ecologically sensitive Himalayan foothills makes green cover initiatives at the site especially significant.

Policy Backdrop

The drive aligns with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, the nationwide cleanliness mission launched in 2014, which has specifically targeted sanitation and upkeep at religious and public spaces across India. Uttarakhand, as a state with dense temple networks and fragile Himalayan ecology, has regularly integrated such campaigns into its governance calendar.

Indian state governments have increasingly used tree plantation events at pilgrimage sites to pursue twin goals: improving green cover metrics and elevating standards of cleanliness for religious tourism. Uttarakhand's Himalayan terrain is particularly vulnerable to deforestation and soil erosion, lending ecological urgency to sapling drives beyond their symbolic value.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary beneficiaries of the campaign are the pilgrims who visit Purnagiri Temple year-round, as well as local residents of Udham Singh Nagar, a district that borders Nepal and depends significantly on religious tourism alongside agriculture and industry. Cleaner temple precincts and improved green cover can directly enhance the pilgrim experience and support the local economy.

Environmental advocates and forest officials in Uttarakhand have consistently stressed the need for sustained sapling survival programmes, noting that one-day plantation events must be followed by monitoring and maintenance to translate into lasting ecological gains.

What's Next

State authorities are expected to release reports on sapling counts and survival-rate targets from the Khatima drive in the coming weeks. The administration may extend similar plantation and swachhata campaigns to other prominent shrines across Uttarakhand ahead of peak pilgrimage season, when temple footfall rises sharply and environmental pressure on these sites intensifies.

The pattern of combining religious site management with green cover targets suggests CM Dhami's government is positioning environmental stewardship as a complement to its religious tourism agenda — a model that could be replicated across other Himalayan states facing similar ecological and pilgrimage pressures.