Telangana MP's social media campaign sparks tree-planting movement

What started as a proposal to loosely replicate Antakshari, a popular Indian game and ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, on social media has today turned into one of the biggest non-government afforestation programmes in the country transcending boundaries.

In 2018,  Joginapally Santosh Kumar, a Rajya Sabha MP from Telangana, came up with the #GreenIndiaChallenge hashtag to motivate citizens to do their bit to improve green cover. Using the hashtag, one has to plant a sapling, take a selfie and nominate three others to repeat the act. Three years after the first sapling was planted under the challenge, there are tweets, retweets and shares for the hashtag of Green India Challenge running into millions across various social media platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Initially, it was the local elected representatives and politicians who endorsed the campaign, which later caught the attention of national leaders of different parties. Some of those who got involved in the initiative include Vice President Venkaiah Naidu, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Telangana Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan and other state and union ministers. Giving it further boost was cricketing icon Sachin Tendulkar and other successful sports personalities like Pullela Gopichand. Telugu movie star Chiranjeevi and Bollywood bigwigs like Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan and a host of celebrities followed suit. 

The initiative gradually crossed the country’s borders. The team tracking the campaign was pleasantly surprised to see a video clip from Pakistan in which a group of people were seen taking up the challenge through a plantation drive. Later, the campaign was also supported by Australian MP Jason Wood, New Zealand MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan and also commoners from North America, Africa and Europe continents.

Without any monetary effort, the campaign could drive more than 10 crore plantations in India and abroad, according to the team. 

Santosh, a first-time MP from Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS), said that he drew inspiration from Haritha Haaram, a pet project conceived by his uncle and Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao to increase the forest cover in the state.  

Buoyed by the response, the MP has now extended the scope of the Challenge from plantation to conservation. As a start, he first adopted Keesara Reserve Forest Block spread over 2,042 acres for its overall development and also its protection. Later, popular actor Prabhas of Baahubali fame joined in and pledged to donate money for the conservation and upkeep of Kazipally Reserve Forest Reserve, on the city outskirts, which covers almost 1650 acres.