Green challenge nets support

Hyderabad: After the ice bucket challenge and the rice bucket challenge, now the tree plantation challenge is gaining popularity on social networking websites.

With the objective of increasing the green cover and also to balance oxygen levels in the atmosphere, individuals plant three saplings and nominate more people to plant three saplings each. They are then to upload their photos. To continue the chain, people keep nominating more people to plant saplings.

Dr Priyalini Sarkar, a resident of Nidadavole, West Godavari, reinitiated the movement. About  100 people have been nominated in both Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh to take up the challenge in just about six days.

Dr Sarkar is a 29-year-old full-time physiotherapist and a social worker, who is currently preparing for her Civil service examinations. “This movement was started earlier by someone, but it did not take off. I happened to get interested in this cause after a conversation with an old friend. Within a span of just six days, 20 saplings have been planted and we have got almost 50 nominees. This is amazing, and going by the current pace of nominations, we will have about 150 plants by this weekend,” she said.

Currently, she is compiling all the photographs to keep a track of the number of saplings planted. “We have to keep doing a follow-up to see the progress of the campaign. Hence, people must post photographs of the saplings they have planted. We are now spreading to other cities and Facebook is the best platform. People in Kerala are also going to post pictures and promote this soon. This will help reduce pollution, spread awareness about greenery and reduce carbon footprint,” she said.

She is now looking to form a team that will help spread the word across other cities. Earlier, she had worked on Project Nidadavole, which promoted the cause of saving greenery, especially among children.