Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced on Saturday, 11 July 2026 that the state-wide 'Vriksharopan Mahayagya-2026' will be launched the following day from Gorakhpur, the city that houses the revered Gorakhnath Math. The drive carries a target of planting 35 crore saplings across Uttar Pradesh in a single campaign.

Context

Posting in Hindi on the evening of 11 July 2026, CM Yogi Adityanath described the initiative as a 'hrit mahayagya' (green grand offering) — a public festival expressing gratitude to nature and responsibility towards future generations. He called on every resident of the state to plant at least one sapling, framing the act in cultural terms: 'paudha lagana srijan hai, uska sanrakshan sanskriti hai' ('planting a sapling is creation; protecting it is culture'). He urged citizens to make the campaign a 'janaandolan' — a people's movement.

Policy Backdrop

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' (One Tree in Mother's Name) campaign in 2024, urging Indians to plant trees as a tribute to their mothers. CM Yogi explicitly anchored the 2026 drive within that national call, asking citizens to make it a 'jeevan ka sanskar' — a value woven into everyday life. Uttar Pradesh has conducted large-scale plantation drives annually since 2017, with successive targets ranging from 20 crore to 30 crore saplings in earlier editions. The 35-crore target for 2026 represents the most ambitious iteration yet. These campaigns are timed with the monsoon season, when survival rates for newly planted saplings are highest.

Stakeholders and Impact

The drive directly engages UP's forest department, district administrations, schools, village panchayats, and urban local bodies, all of whom are typically mobilised to meet plantation quotas. For UP's roughly 24 crore residents, the campaign doubles as a civic participation exercise, with the government framing individual sapling planting as a contribution to the 'Viksit Uttar Pradesh' (Developed Uttar Pradesh) vision. Gorakhpur's selection as the launch site carries symbolic weight: it is the seat of the Gorakhnath Math, which CM Yogi heads, and the city is described in the post as the 'tapasthali' — the site of spiritual austerity — of the revered saint Guru Gorakhnath. The alignment with the central government's 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' scheme also positions the state drive within India's broader international climate commitments on afforestation.

What's Next

The formal launch event is scheduled for 12 July 2026 in Gorakhpur. Attention will subsequently turn to whether the state achieves the 35-crore sapling target and, critically, what proportion of planted saplings survive into subsequent quarters — a metric that has drawn scrutiny in earlier editions of the drive. Any integration with central green schemes or new guidelines for municipal plantation programmes will also be closely watched.