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1.5 Million Volunteers Plant 66 Million Trees in 12 Hours, Breaking Guinness World Record

Lorraine Chow
Jul. 03, 2017 12:21PM EST Popular
Shivraj Singh Chouhan

The central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh set a new Guinness World Record on Sunday after 1.5 million volunteers planted more than 66 million tree saplings in just 12 hours along the Narmada river.

The effort bested the state of Uttar Pradesh's previous record-breaking feat, when 800,000 participants planted 50 million trees in one day in July 2016.

Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, boasted the achievement: "I am extremely proud to happily share that people of Madhya Pradesh successfully planted 6.63 Crore saplings today." One crore is 10 million.

According to a press release for the occasion, the aim of the mass-planting event was to raise awareness for the nation's "make India green again" plan. At the Paris climate conference, India pledged to increase forest cover to 95 million hectares (235 million acres) by year 2030 and is putting $6.2 billion towards the effort.

"I am greatly indebted to all who are planting trees today," Chouhan also told India.com. "We will be contributing significantly in saving nature. By participating in a plantation, people are contributing their bit to climate change initiatives and saving the environment."

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