Generating more than 1.6 million workdays of employment, social enterprise Grow-Trees.com has reached a significant milestone in 2024 by successfully planting over 20 million trees across 23 Indian States.
Founded in 2010 by entrepreneurs Pradip Shah and Karan Shah, Grow-Trees.com plants local tree species on community land parcels for the benefit of local communities, wildlife as well as biodiversity in rural and urban regions. Saplings are nurtured in nurseries for months and once they are planted, independent auditors visit sites to verify the plantation details.
According to co-founder Pradip Shah, this landmark moment exemplifies Grow-Trees.com’s commitment towards the nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). He adds, “We are not only invested in environmental restoration but in contributing substantially to the nation’s carbon offsetting goals. At the same time, we are targeting regions with specific ecological, social and economic issues with tailored projects like ‘Trees for Tigers®’ in Ramtek, ‘Trees for Rural Communities™’ in Telangana, ‘Trees for Himalayas™’ and many others. These are meant to expand wildlife habitats, expand green cover and also empower local communities and underserved women by generating gainful employment.
Grow-Trees.com also engages citizenry and corporate entities in its mission, via the ‘Greet with Trees’ initiative. With just a click this innovative concept allows anyone to dedicate trees as gifts and also support an afforestation project of their choice.
This also seamlessly ties in with Mission LiFE, a mass movement initiated by India at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP-26) in Glasgow (2021) to nudge individual and community action towards the protection and preservation of the environment.
According to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR-21), afforestation efforts, including those by Grow-Trees.com, have led to an increase in tree cover by 721 sq km, reaching 2.91% of the geographical area. Coupled with sustained efforts to reduce industrial emissions and the work that organisations like Grow-Trees.com are doing to protect India’s forest biomes, India can counter climate change proactively and achieve decarbonisation effectively in the near future.
