Every tree gets a name and a guardian: Jammu admin launches ‘Paalna’ plantation drive across 815 institutions

• Will publish survival data every month; 60,000 saplings adopted by students; NIC dashboard to track each tree for its lifetime

JAMMU: A whopping Sixty thousand saplings were today planted across Jammu district. Each tree will carry two names — the trees’ and the student responsible for keeping it alive. District Administration Jammu launched ‘Paalna’, a plantation campaign built on a single departure from convention: no sapling has been planted without an adopter. Every one of the 60,000 trees planted across 815 educational institutions has been adopted by a student or teacher, who will name it, care for it and submit monthly reports on its condition for one full year.

Each guardian received a certificate bearing a photograph of their tree. Each tree also has a designated guardian for periods when schools are closed, so that care does not lapse during vacations. The district will publish how many of them survive.

The National Informatics Centre Jammu led by Director IT/District Informatics Officer, Sanjeev Kapoor has developed a dedicated web portal and dashboard tracking the survival, maintenance and growth of every individual plant over its lifetime — tree by tree, school by school.

“Every tree here has a name and a child responsible for it. And every month, we will publish how many are still alive,” said Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Dr Rakesh Minhas. “Our country has planted plenty of trees. But the number of survivors is not there. Jammu will produce that number. Paalna means to raise something — that is the difference between planting a tree and growing one.”

At Government Girls Higher Secondary School, Gandhi Nagar, where the campaign was inaugurated, Muskan Mattoo of class 8th, who planted a Moringa sapling, said that she feels honoured with this novel responsibility.

Chief Conservator of Forests, Jammu, Dr VS Senthil Kumar, who inaugurated the campaign alongside the Deputy Commissioner, described the model as a novel approach that assigns clear responsibility for each sapling and said it could be replicated across the Jammu province. A second drive was led by both officers at GGMHSS Kandoli, Nagrota, with the plantation completed across all 815 institutions through the day.

Subsequent phases will extend the adoption mechanism to hospitals, other government institutions and roadside plantations. Beyond increasing green cover, the initiative seeks to build a lasting culture of environmental stewardship among students.

Divisional Forest Officer Jammu Anurag Arya and Additional Deputy Commissioner Jammu Sher Singh, besides Range Officers and other officers of the Forest Department were also present.