Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel participated in a live tree plantation drive at Gandhinagar on Friday, 5 June 2026, marking World Environment Day under the third edition of the national campaign 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam 3.0'.

Context

The Chief Minister shared the live broadcast of the event on X, writing in Gujarati: 'વિશ્વ પર્યાવરણ દિવસ નિમિત્તે એક પેડ માં કે નામ 3.0 અંતર્ગત ગાંધીનગર ખાતે વૃક્ષારોપણ' — translated as 'Tree plantation at Gandhinagar under Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam 3.0, on the occasion of World Environment Day.' The event was streamed live, indicating a public-facing, participatory format intended to mobilise citizens alongside state officials.

World Environment Day is observed every year on 5 June under United Nations auspices and serves as the anchor date for India's annual afforestation calendar. Gujarat's participation in a centrally-driven campaign on this date is consistent with the state's longstanding tradition of government-led plantation events.

Policy Backdrop

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam campaign on 5 June 2024 — also World Environment Day — calling on citizens across India to plant a tree as a tribute to their mothers. The campaign linked personal sentiment to a national afforestation goal, drawing wide participation from state governments, schools, and civil society in its first edition.

The third edition, Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam 3.0, marks the campaign's continued annual rollout. Gujarat has a decades-old tradition of Van Mahotsav tree plantation programmes dating to the 1950s, which have over time been integrated with central missions including the National Afforestation Programme and the National Mission for Green India. These layered frameworks give state-level events both symbolic and policy weight.

Stakeholders and Impact

The primary stakeholders are Gujarat's citizens and the state forest department, which coordinates logistics for large-scale plantation drives. Events of this nature typically involve volunteers, school children, and local government bodies planting saplings at designated sites across the state capital and beyond.

BJP-governed states have consistently aligned such drives with national campaigns to demonstrate coordination between state and central governments on environmental targets. The live-broadcast format broadens the event's reach beyond physical participants, encouraging viewers to replicate the gesture in their own localities.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to the total number of saplings planted across Gujarat during the 2026 edition of the drive, and whether the state government releases follow-up data on sapling survival rates and maintenance budgets — metrics that determine whether symbolic plantation events translate into lasting green cover. Successive editions of the campaign have faced scrutiny on exactly these questions at the national level.