India's 'Tree Father' plants for a greener future

The Manila Times

India's 'Tree Father' plants for a greener future  In Noida, just outside New Delhi, Swami Prem Parivartan, long known as India's 'tree father', presses a young tree into the earth, continuing a nearly half-century mission to restore the country's vanishing green cover. "It is not about planting one tree or two trees or thousand trees or 500 trees. It's about how you manage the land on which those plants have been planted," the 60-year-old says. His 'Give Me Trees' trust estimates it has planted or preserved 26 million trees, restoring vegetation across an area about 3.5 times the size of New York City.  AFP VIDEO  Check out our Streaming Channel: https://streaming.manilatimes.net/  Subscribe to The Manila Times Channel - https://tmt.ph/YTSubscribe  Visit our website at https://www.manilatimes.net  Follow us: Facebook - https://tmt.ph/facebook Instagram - https://tmt.ph/instagram Twitter - https://tmt.ph/twitter DailyMotion - https://tmt.ph/dailymotion  Subscribe to our Digital Edition - https://tmt.ph/digital  Check out our Podcasts: Spotify - https://tmt.ph/spotify Apple Podcasts - https://tmt.ph/applepodcasts Amazon Music - https://tmt.ph/amazonmusic Deezer: https://tmt.ph/deezer Tune In: https://tmt.ph/tunein  #TheManilaTimes #WorldNews

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00:06You have these ants going around rather than gadgets and digging tools and you will never establish a relationship. So

00:19how long did it take? Nothing.

00:25On my birthday that was my 11th birthday 26th of January 1977 that she asked me that it's your birthday

00:34you should do something good you know you should do something charitable you should do something. So she gave me

00:41some money I went to the nursery with my gardener with so he purchased some nine saplings for us and

00:50that was the start of the whole thing.

00:51And then she was my first coach, my first guru.

01:04It is not about planting one tree or two trees or thousand trees or 500 trees. It's about how you

01:11manage the land on which those plants have been planted.

01:14You know there has to be a succession, there has to be a waterhole, there has to be a fully

01:20integrated ecosystem over there. So biodiversity is the main keyword.

01:25Restoring the ecosystem is the keyword. Restoring the habitat for insects and animals you know that is the focus area.

01:33Not just counting okay so many saplings have been planted. It has no meaning to it.

01:38We have about four lakh volunteers across India. About four lakh people on the ground. I just tell them my

01:44message to them is always this thing. Don't get arrogant about it. You know and don't get aggressive about it.

01:52Do what you can. Do it lovingly. Be gentle with the planet.

01:59Do it lovingly.

02:01Do it lovingly. Be gentle with the sky.

02:27You

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