Union Coal and Mines Minister G. Kishan Reddy on Saturday, 6 June 2026, led a plantation drive at the AIIMS Bibinagar campus in Telangana, participating in the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam (One Tree in Mother's Name) movement initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Senior officials, staff members, and students of the institution joined the minister for the event.

Context

Reddy, who also serves as BJP Telangana state president, described the drive as part of his commitment to environmental conservation. Posting on X, he wrote: 'Initiated a plantation drive at AIIMS Bibinagar campus today, furthering the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam movement spearheaded by Hon'ble PM Shri Narendra Modi ji and reaffirming my commitment to environmental conservation.'

AIIMS Bibinagar is one of the new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences established under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, a central government scheme aimed at expanding tertiary healthcare infrastructure across underserved states, including Telangana.

Policy Backdrop

The Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam campaign was publicly launched by Prime Minister Modi on World Environment Day 2024 to boost nationwide tree cover and encourage citizen participation in afforestation. The initiative asks individuals and institutions to plant trees in honour of their mothers, framing environmental action as a personal and cultural commitment.

The drive at AIIMS Bibinagar fits within a broader push by central government ministries and public institutions to incorporate green practices into their day-to-day operations. India's updated Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement set ambitious targets for increasing forest and tree cover, and programmes such as the National Afforestation Programme and the annual Van Mahotsav drives have long linked plantation activity with public health and sustainable development goals.

Healthcare campuses, in particular, have been identified as suitable sites for green initiatives given their role in promoting public health — making an AIIMS campus a symbolically apt venue for such an effort.

Stakeholders and Impact

The immediate participants — AIIMS Bibinagar officials, faculty, staff, and students — are both contributors to and beneficiaries of a greener campus environment. Studies consistently link increased green cover in institutional settings with improved air quality, reduced urban heat, and better mental health outcomes for those who live and work in those spaces.

At a wider level, if plantation drives of this nature are replicated across other AIIMS campuses and central government hospitals, the cumulative contribution to India's afforestation targets could be meaningful. Local communities around Bibinagar stand to benefit from any sustained increase in green cover in the area.

What's Next

Attention will turn to whether the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change formalises a framework for extending such plantation drives to other AIIMS campuses nationwide. Tracking the survival rates of saplings planted under the Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam initiative will also be critical to assessing the programme's real-world impact beyond the optics of launch events. Reddy's participation signals continued political momentum behind the campaign ahead of the monsoon season, traditionally the most effective window for large-scale plantation activity in India.