‘Each One Plant One’ celebrates member’s birthday with ‘tree party’
Times of India | 10 June 2025
1234 Kolkata: It was a birthday party at Subhash Sarovar on Sunday without any cakes being cut or balloons decorating the podium. The organisers, mostly professionals from different walks of life, instead planted 47 saplings around the lake to celebrate the birthday of one of their members, which was part of their ‘Each One Plant One' campaign."This was an idea that struck us while we were planting trees on a Sunday and a friend had his birthday on that day. We thought, why not include our relatives and friends in this drive and celebrate birthdays in a different way," said Pankaj Maloo, trustee of Active Citizens Together for Sustainability (ACTS), a citizen initiative. ‘Each One Plant One' is the prime initiative of ACTS to fight climate change and global warming."I sent invites to my friends and relatives, asking them to gather at Subhas Sarobar on Sunday morning. We asked them not to bring any gifts, but to be prepared to plant a tree. Since it was my 47th birthday, we decided to plant 47 saplings," said Maloo, who celebrated his birthday. Members of ‘Each One Plant One' have decided to celebrate their birthdays by planting more trees and spreading the message with a request to plant at least one tree on a citizen's birthday.‘Each One Plant One' started functioning in 2020 and went to almost every neighbourhood in and around Kolkata to plant trees every Sunday morning. "In the past five years, we planted nearly a lakh trees. It was a difficult task as we were strangers to many neighbourhoods. We started tying up with housing societies, clubs, offices, police stations, and social organisations. In 2023, we started distributing saplings free of cost. We had a condition for everyone who wanted a sapling from us. They have to take care of the plant till it grows up," said Ajay Mittal, founder trustee of the initiative.According to the ‘India State of Forest' report, 2021, Kolkata registered a 30% decline in green cover between 2011 and 2021. Out of 88,752 sq km geographical area in 2021, 16,832 sq km in Bengal was under forest cover. According to 2019 report, Bengal had 16,901 sq km under forest cover.