Shivraj plants sapling in Bhopal, urges public to join Aug 12 drive
Synopsis
Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan planted a sapling in Bhopal on August 9 as part of his daily pledge, and invited citizens to join a large plantation drive on Hariyali Amavasya, August 12, via a missed-call registration system.
Key Takeaways
Shivraj Singh Chouhan planted a sapling in Bhopal on August 9, 2026 as part of a self-declared daily tree-planting pledge.
He urged citizens to plant trees and join a mass drive on Hariyali Amavasya, August 12 .
Registration for the event is via a missed call to 8929629475 .
Hariyali Amavasya falls on the new moon of the Shravan month and has a long community tree-planting tradition in central India.
India's Van Mahotsav tree-planting week has been observed every July since 1950 , reflecting a decades-long national afforestation culture.
One sapling at a time — Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan planted a tree in Bhopal on Sunday, August 9, 2026, continuing his self-declared daily pledge to plant at least one sapling every day, and called on citizens across the country to do the same.
Posting under the hashtag #OnePlantADay, Chouhan wrote: 'In continuation of the resolve to plant a sapling every day, I planted one today in Bhopal. You too plant trees and make the earth prosperous.' He also invited the public to join a large-scale plantation drive scheduled for August 12, coinciding with Hariyali Amavasya, by giving a missed call to 8929629475.
Hariyali Amavasya and the monsoon planting tradition
Hariyali Amavasya — the new moon of the Shravan month — carries a long tradition of community tree-planting across central India, particularly in Madhya Pradesh. The festival fuses religious observance with ecological action, making it a natural anchor for mass mobilisation campaigns. Chouhan, who served as Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh for four terms, has a record of leveraging such occasions for state-level afforestation drives.
The appeal fits within a broader national pattern: successive Indian governments have tied plantation campaigns to monsoon festivals and international climate commitments. Van Mahotsav, India's annual tree-planting week, has been held every July since 1950, and the current government has aligned similar drives with national afforestation targets under its climate pledges.
A minister who plants, then asks you to
What makes Chouhan's post notable is the format: not an announcement of a government scheme, but a personal daily discipline turned public invitation. The missed-call mechanism — low-barrier, accessible to feature-phone users — signals an intent to reach rural and semi-urban citizens, the very constituency his Agriculture Ministry serves.
Whether the August 12 Hariyali Amavasya event translates daily pledges into measurable canopy cover will be the real test. Sapling survival rates, not planting numbers, are the metric that ecologists watch.
Point of View
A template Indian leaders have used since Van Mahotsav began in 1950. The missed-call mechanism is telling: it bypasses smartphone dependency and targets exactly the rural demographic at the heart of the Agriculture Ministry's mandate. The open question is whether these high-visibility gestures are matched by credible tracking of sapling survival — the gap between planting events and actual forest-cover gains remains a persistent criticism of India's afforestation campaigns.
NationPress
9 Aug 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Hariyali Amavasya and when does it fall in 2026?
Hariyali Amavasya is the new moon day of the Shravan month in the Hindu calendar, traditionally associated with community tree-planting rituals in central India. In 2026 it falls on August 12 .
How can I register for Shivraj Singh Chouhan's August 12 plantation drive?
Give a missed call to 8929629475 to register for the Hariyali Amavasya plantation campaign announced by Union Agriculture Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan.
What is the #OnePlantADay campaign?
#OnePlantADay is a personal pledge by Shivraj Singh Chouhan to plant at least one sapling every day, which he has been publicly sharing on social media to encourage citizens to adopt the same habit.
Where did Shivraj Singh Chouhan plant a tree on August 9, 2026?
He planted a sapling in Bhopal , the capital of Madhya Pradesh, on August 9, 2026 .
What is Van Mahotsav and how does it relate to India's plantation campaigns?
Van Mahotsav is India's annual tree-planting week, held every July since 1950 . It is part of a long tradition of government-led afforestation drives, which leaders like Chouhan build on through monsoon-season campaigns tied to festivals like Hariyali Amavasya.
