Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan planted a sapling in New Delhi on Tuesday, May 26, 2026, as part of his personal daily tree-planting pledge, and called on citizens to join a missed-call campaign to become 'Shiv Vriksh Mitra' (Shiv Tree Friends) by dialling 8929629475.

Context

Chouhan posted on X describing daily tree-planting as 'dharti mata aur prakriti ki seva ka maha sankalp' — 'a great resolve to serve Mother Earth and nature.' He urged followers: 'You too plant trees, make the earth beautiful and prosperous,' and invited them to take a collective pledge to save nature under the hashtag #OnePlantADay.

The minister planted the sapling in New Delhi, continuing what he has framed as a personal daily ritual. The missed-call number is positioned as an easy on-ramp for citizens — particularly in rural areas with limited smartphone access — to register their participation in the drive.

Policy Backdrop

India's afforestation ambitions have deep institutional roots. The Van Mahotsav festival, launched in 1950 by K.M. Munshi, established the tradition of mass tree-planting drives as a national civic act. Decades later, the Green India Mission, launched in 2010 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, set a target to expand forest and tree cover across 10 million hectares.

India has also made international commitments under the Bonn Challenge and the Paris Agreement to restore degraded land. Tree-planting campaigns by Union ministers frequently bridge environmental goals with agriculture and rural development — two portfolios Chouhan currently holds — making citizen-level participation central to the messaging.

Stakeholders and Impact

The campaign targets ordinary citizens and small farmers, who are both primary stewards of rural land and the constituency most directly affected by soil degradation and erratic rainfall. A missed-call mechanism lowers the barrier to participation for those without reliable internet access.

Chouhan's record in Madhya Pradesh, where he served four terms as Chief Minister, includes state-level greenery and farmer-welfare initiatives that prefigure this national push. His current dual mandate over agriculture and rural development gives the drive institutional weight beyond symbolic gesture.

What's Next

With the monsoon season approaching, plantation drives typically scale up across India between June and September, when soil moisture improves sapling survival rates. Observers will watch whether the 'Shiv Vriksh Mitra' campaign is formalised into a ministry-backed programme, and whether updated national forest-cover targets appear in upcoming parliamentary environment committee reports or the next Union Budget.