300,000 of India’s poorest people have been given three months of employment planting tree saplings in specific areas, then nurturing and protecting them. This government sponsored plan addresses rising pollution levels, will help control mud slides caused by floods, and as a result will also help with health issues associated with flooding. Some of the trees are fruit trees, so will also be a source of food in a country where feeding a growing population is an issue. This wonderful plan was the idea of SM Raju, a civil servant from Bangalore with a degree in agriculture. My congratulations to him for this novel idea that should benefit India for many years to come.
On a single day recently, people working on his program planted nearly a billion saplings. Imagine the impact to the environment and to the people even if only half of those saplings survive: 500,000,000 trees. And that was just one day of the one hundred days of the program.
I wonder if Mr. Obama is listening?
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