Army, forest deptt attempts record of planting most trees in an hour

Guwahati, Apr 29: The Indian Army, in collaboration with other agencies, today attempted to set a new Guinness record of planting the maximum number of trees by 100 men within an hour on the banks of Saralbhanga river near Chirang reserve forest in westernAssam.

The Army’s Dogra Regiment at Kokrajhar, the stateForestdepartment and 135 Ecological Territorial Army Battalion made this attempt at Khalasi, near Jharbari.

With the motto of ‘Plant a tree, save a life’, 100 volunteers including Army men and Haltugaon Division Forest Department officials planted 40,885 saplings in one hour to establish a new Guinness Record, an Army release said here.

The current record is for planting 26,422 trees in one hour inGransha Park,Northern Ireland.

Four adjudicators appointed by the Guinness Book of World Records witnessed the event and video-taped the entire proceedings, which would be sent to the Guinness records head-office for verification.

The formal declaration of setting the new world record will be done after verification later.

Dr Ramesh, divisional forest officer of Kokrajhar, said the effort was not at establishing a record but to highlight the loss to the environment and impress upon society to do their bit to save the forests.

The DFO appreciated the efforts of the army in the cause and said now the battle ahead for the ‘Green Warriors’ was two fold – ensuring the survival of these new saplings and planning such projects in other parts of the district.  (UNI)