At Karnal on Thursday, 30 July 2026, Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini joined the 77th State-Level Van Mahotsav — and opened not with a policy announcement, but with a nearly 300-year-old act of sacrifice. Trees, he said, are not just resources. They are the planet's immune system.

Addressing forest department officials, field workers, and citizens gathered for the annual plantation festival, CM Saini drew a sharp distinction: 'चिकित्सा विज्ञान मनुष्य के स्वास्थ्य की रक्षा करता है, जबकि वृक्ष पूरी पृथ्वी के स्वास्थ्य के रक्षक हैं' — 'Medical science protects human health; trees protect the health of the entire Earth.' It is a line that reframes conservation as planetary medicine, not bureaucratic obligation.

The 1730 sacrifice that still echoes in Haryana's forests

The Chief Minister invoked Mata Amrita Devi Bishnoi, who in 1730 gave her life — along with 363 fellow Bishnoi villagers — to shield khejri trees in Khejarli village, Rajasthan from being felled on royal orders. That act of collective martyrdom became the founding moment of community-led conservation in India, centuries before the word 'environmentalism' entered any language. Saini held it up not as a historical footnote but as a living mandate.

The reference carries weight in the political geography of Haryana, where the Bishnoi community has deep roots and where reverence for the natural world is embedded in local culture. Connecting that heritage to a 21st-century climate agenda is deliberate — it grounds a global crisis in local memory.

Modi's 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' as Haryana's organising frame

Saini anchored the day's drive to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' ('One Tree in Mother's Name') campaign, calling for it to be transformed into a jan andolan — a people's movement. The campaign asks every Indian to plant a tree in honour of their mother, converting a personal gesture into a national afforestation count.

Van Mahotsav itself is no new invention — it was launched nationally in 1950 by K.M. Munshi as India's primary annual tree-planting festival. Seventy-six editions in, the challenge has shifted from awareness to urgency: climate change now gives the ritual a deadline.

Saini framed that urgency plainly — climate change is a global challenge whose solution lies not only in government policy but in the active participation of every citizen. Government targets without public buy-in, the argument goes, are just numbers on paper.

What Haryana's forest push actually demands

The real test will be in plantation survival rates, forest cover data, and whether state budget allocations for green infrastructure grow in coming assembly sessions. Ceremonial planting drives are easy to photograph. Sustained canopy cover is harder to manufacture. The forest department officials in that Karnal auditorium know the difference better than anyone.

For now, CM Saini has set the tone: heritage, urgency, and mass participation — not government alone — as Haryana's formula for a greener future. The trees planted today will be the verdict.