A 15-acre urban forest of sacred Peepal trees now stands in Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh — a living monument to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 25 years in public life. Union Home Minister Amit Shah inaugurated the 'Viksit Bharat Sankalp Park (Peepal Van)' on Tuesday, November 3, 2026, personally planting a Peepal sapling to mark the occasion.

Shah framed the moment with a pointed declaration: 'Prakriti aur pragati ek-doosre ke poorak hain' — 'Nature and progress are complementary to each other, and our government has proved it.' The park, he said, is more than a green space; it is an argument made in soil and roots.

2,500 Peepal trees and a city reimagined

The Viksit Bharat Sankalp Park brings together 2,500 Peepal trees and over 500 species of locally native plants across its expanse in Nava Raipur, Chhattisgarh's planned capital city. The scale is deliberate: the number of Peepal trees mirrors the 25 years of Modi's public-life journey — one hundred trees for each year. The park is designed as a conservation message as much as a tribute, with native biodiversity embedded into its very blueprint.

Nava Raipur, built as a greenfield administrative capital, has been positioned as a model for sustainable urban development in central India. Adding a dedicated Peepal forest to its landscape pushes that identity further — toward what Shah described as making the city the country's first 'Peepal City.'

From 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' to two lakh saplings

The roots of today's inauguration stretch back to 2024, when the 'Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam' (One Tree in Mother's Name) national plantation campaign was launched. The drive urged citizens across India to plant trees as a tribute to their mothers, weaving emotional resonance into environmental action. In Nava Raipur's case, that campaign directly seeded the Peepal City ambition: 2 lakh (200,000) Peepal saplings have already been planted across the city under the initiative.

That grassroots momentum — households, schools, and local bodies all participating — is precisely what the central government has cited as proof that large-scale urban greening can be driven by cultural belonging rather than top-down mandate alone.

Nature as statecraft: the bigger pattern

This inauguration fits into a broader and consistent pattern: state-level urban greening projects that blend native-species afforestation with symbolic national narratives. Large plantation campaigns have become a visible instrument of India's climate and urban-environment policy, combining measurable green-cover targets with moments of public mobilisation.

The survival rate of those two lakh saplings — and whether Nava Raipur formally receives an official 'Peepal City' designation — will determine whether today's ceremony translates into durable ecological change. A park inauguration is a beginning, not a verdict. The Peepal, after all, is famously patient.