Van Mahotsav

The week-long “Festival of Forests” or Van Mahotsav is here. Celebrated since 1950, millions of saplings are planted during this week-long festival every year. But is it enough? Research says that for every tree felled, ten saplings are required to be planted to make up for its loss. Ever wondered how many of the saplings that are planted actually survive? Not even ten percent! And yet, we keep on clearing forests in the name of development, for railway tracks and highways and coastal roads and bullet trains. While forests take their penultimate gasp of breath to survive, its high time for us to wake up and realize the repercussions of our willful destructive actions and its domino effect on our future generations.