Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Sunday, 24 May 2026, participated in a tree plantation drive at the Smart City Park in Bhopal, planting a sapling alongside his young nephew as part of his continuing daily pledge under the #OnePlantADay campaign.

Context

Chouhan shared the experience on social media, writing in Hindi: 'Pratideen paudharopan ka sankalp ab jan-jan ka abhiyan banta ja raha hai' ('The resolve to plant a sapling every day is turning into a mass movement'). He described the moment of planting alongside his nephew as feeling 'as if we were placing a new life in the lap of Mother Earth,' adding that the child's innocent joy was a reminder that 'greenery and clean air are our greatest gift to future generations.'

Three members of his personal staff — Siddharth Sonwane, Manish Chaukse, and Siddhanth Soni — also planted saplings at the same event to mark their respective birthdays, turning the occasion into a collective green gesture.

Policy Backdrop

The plantation activity takes place within a park developed under the Smart Cities Mission, the Central government programme launched in 2015 to build sustainable urban infrastructure including green public spaces. India's broader afforestation architecture includes the Green India Mission, launched in 2014 under the National Action Plan on Climate Change, which targets the expansion of forest and tree cover across the country.

The tradition of organised public tree-planting in India stretches back to Van Mahotsav, the annual nationwide drive that has been observed since 1950. Chouhan's daily personal pledge mirrors that long-standing civic tradition while adapting it to a social-media-driven format designed to encourage individual participation.

Stakeholders and Impact

Urban residents are the most immediate stakeholders in green-space expansion efforts within city limits. Parks developed under the Smart Cities Mission serve dual purposes: improving air quality and providing recreational infrastructure for city dwellers. Symbolic ministerial participation in plantation events is widely used to generate public awareness and normalise tree-planting as everyday civic behaviour.

India's commitments under the Paris Agreement include targets for expanding forest and tree cover, making ground-level afforestation drives — however small — part of a larger accountability framework that is periodically assessed through the India State of Forest Report.

What's Next

With the monsoon season approaching, state governments across India typically scale up plantation drives between July and September, when soil conditions are most favourable for sapling survival. The next India State of Forest Report will offer a data-backed assessment of whether such cumulative efforts are translating into measurable gains in national green cover. Chouhan's continued public participation in the #OnePlantADay campaign signals that the initiative is likely to be sustained through the upcoming planting season.