“Did you see last year’s plants too?”

Every year on 'World Environment Day' we plant trees, get photographs taken, but one question remains unanswered - are the trees planted last year still alive?

- PRIYANKA SAURABH Research Scholar in Political Science. Hisar, Haryana.

Today, when we talk about Environment Day, the first scene that comes to mind is — some people standing with a lush green plant, not a spade or a bucket of water in their hands, but a mobile camera. There is less enthusiasm on their faces to save the environment, and more of a smile in the picture. Environment Day has now become a 'selfie day' — not of planting a tree, but of uploading a photo.

But the question is, did you take any news of the plants planted last year?

Or did they just become part of a “Facebook post”?

Through this article, I want to raise a serious and important question — have we seen tree planting as an opportunity and not as a responsibility? And has greenery remained only in photos?

Greenery: Increased in figures, decreased on the ground

Every year, governments claim that lakhs of trees were planted. Big statistics are presented that the forest area increased, trees were planted in so many thousands of hectares. But the question is, how many of those lakhs of trees survived?

The truth is that plants planted without care, without irrigation, without protection do not become part of the forest, but get mixed with the soil.

But we consider them greener in statistics.

Concern for the environment does not go beyond photos

In modern society, concern for the environment lasts only as long as it can be publicised. As soon as the camera is turned off, our responsibility also ends.