India Plants 66 Million Trees In 12 Hours, Breaks Its Own World Record

India has planted more than 50 million trees in one day at different locations in the previous world record in 2016. Now, it has broken its own world record by planting 66 million trees in just 12 hours.

Last Sunday, over 1.5 million people volunteered to plant trees along the Narmada River in the state of Madhya Pradesh in between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. This action is made in honor of the pledge made by India at the Paris Climate Change Conference. It is reported that under the Paris Agreement, India agreed to spend $6 billion to reforestation of its land by 12 percent. It aims to reduce the harmful effects of climate change, according to ABC.

State Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan revealed the new world record on Twitter. He said that #MPPlants6Crore Trees is the effort in accordance with #Paris Accord. He added that he is proud that Madhya Pradesh has been one of the first to initiate.

Currently, India is one of the world's biggest producers of carbon emissions. With this, it experiences poor air quality, coal and biomass fuel burning and lack of sewage treatment operations. On the other hand, it is now recovering and using investment in environmentalism and green energy.

Harsh Plant, a fellow at the New Delhi-based research organization Observer Research Foundation, said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi knows climate change is good politics. He further said that climate change makes sense to Modi because he believes it as it is good economics and politics, as IFL Science noted.

According to the United Nations, deforestation and forest degradation make up 17 percent of the world's carbon emissions. There are also about 15 billion trees that are lost each year that is believed to be exacerbating the climate change. With this, other nations are also into massive tree-planting to lessen the effects of climate change. In Australia, it plans to use drones to plant 1 billion trees annually. Meanwhile, 10 African nations pledge to re-establish 31.7 million hectares of land as part of the African Forest Landscape Restoration Initiative.