India planting 250m saplings in fight against carbon emissions

The effort spans 68,000 villages and 83,000 forest sites in northern Uttar Pradesh state

Indian laborers plant saplings as part of an annual tree plantation campaign on the outskirts of Prayagraj, in northern Uttar Pradesh state, India, Sunday, July 4, 2021. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)

More than a million people have started planting 250 million saplings in India’s most populous state, part of an mass campaign to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the effects of global climate change.

Legislators, government officials and volunteers from social organisations swarmed riverbanks, farms, forests, schools and government buildings, planting saplings at designated spots.