Every single day, rain or shine, Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is planting a tree — and on Wednesday, 29 July 2026, he carried that pledge to New Delhi, sapling in hand. Now he wants millions to join him.

Chouhan posted on X under the hashtag #OnePlantADay, sharing that he had planted a sapling as part of his daily tree-plantation resolve. In the same breath, he extended a public call to action: anyone wishing to join the Hariyali Amavasya mass plantation campaign on 12 August 2026 can register with a missed call to 8929629475.

What Hariyali Amavasya means — and why it moves people

Hariyali Amavasya — the new moon of the Shravan month — is one of India's most ecologically charged traditional occasions. Observed across northern and central India, the day carries a centuries-old association with greenery, rainfall, and the earth's renewal. Governments and communities alike have long used the festival to anchor plantation drives, lending cultural weight to what might otherwise be a bureaucratic exercise.

The monsoon timing is deliberate: freshly planted saplings have the best survival odds when the rains are still active. It is a rare alignment of tradition, ecology, and logistics.

Chouhan's plantation record — from Madhya Pradesh to the national stage

This is not a new posture for Chouhan. As Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for four terms, he championed large-scale afforestation campaigns, including the 'Ek Ped, Ek Jeevan' ('One Tree, One Life') initiative that mobilised communities across the state. That tradition of combining personal example with mass mobilisation has followed him to the Union Cabinet.

India's afforestation ambitions run deep institutionally — from the National Afforestation Programme to the Green India Mission, and international restoration pledges made at successive climate summits. Ministerial visibility during monsoon plantation seasons has been a consistent tool in translating those targets into ground-level action.

India's Van Mahotsav tradition, launched nationally in 1950 by K.M. Munshi, set the template: make tree-planting a civic celebration, not just a government directive. Chouhan's daily pledge and missed-call mobilisation are the 2026 iteration of that same idea — scaled for social media, rooted in the same instinct.

The real test arrives on 12 August: how many missed calls come in, how many saplings go into the ground, and whether the campaign leaves a measurable mark on India's tree-cover numbers. That count will tell the story.