A good dare is hard to resist. A few years back, the Ice Bucket Challenge went viral round the globe. India then had its own ‘rice bucket challenge’. Project Sthithi, under the Change can Change Climate Change (C5) initiative, has come up with a plan to challenge the 20 MPs in the State to plant trees equal to the margin of their victory.
The #Margin Tree Challenge is an attempt to counter the effects of climate change by getting the newly elected people’s representatives to plant trees and deliver the challenge accurately within five years. It also wants them to use their resources and energy to include climate change in policy making.
Bharath Govind G.S., head, Project Sthithi, says Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports show that at least 50-70% reduction in emission of greenhouse gases is needed for restabilisation of climate. Tree planting has been found to be the best way so far to undo the havoc caused to climate, be it through green corridors or green buildings, he says.
Project Sthithi will kick off the challenge by planting 20 trees at Concordia Lutheran Higher Secondary School, Kudapanakkunnu, here on June 3 and then getting Shashi Tharoor, MP, to take up the challenge and plant 99,989 trees to equal his victory margin.
Project Sthithi has also spoken to the office of Adoor Prakash, Attingal MP, in this regard.
The brainchild of T.K.A. Nair, former bureaucrat, Mr. Bharath, and Janson Varghese, campaign engineer with Sthithi, the challenge is setting its sights on the Prime Minister’s Office too. There are plans to get the Prime Minister to encourage all MPs in the country to take up the challenge and do their bit for nature and its conservation.
Moreover, as elections are a continuous process, the #Margin Tree Challenge can be renewed every time, say in the upcoming bypolls or panchayat elections later. So all people’s representatives would have an opportunity to include it in their green master plan or agenda by setting up green pockets such as an artificial forests in their constituency, Mr. Bharath says.
They can plant trees in households and in government institutions such as school, colleges, and hospitals. Popularising the campaign online are hashtags #Plant_for_the_planet, #Margin_Tree_Challenge, #Together_V_Can