Vruksha Mitra

Having succeeded in his endeavour to plant 1 crore trees in north Gujarat over the last four years, state’s Vruksha Mitra – Jitu Patel – now plans to provide a green cover across the entire state.
He has embarked on a drive to involve the farmers in planting no less than 3 crore trees. Majority of these trees will be planted on the boundaries of the fields and on growing up they will check the soil erosion.
Recipient of ‘Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi Vruksha Mitra Environmental National Award’, Patel is going around persuading the farmers to nourish saplings of aduso, neelgiri, neem, bamboo and fruit trees.
He claims that trees grown in north Gujarat have started yielding lucrative return of Rs 3,500 per tree annually. He said, “After seven years, an acre of land with our trees will yield Rs 1 lakh. The trees have become an additional source of income to the farmer. I prefer growing trees along the fields as they neither need any maintenance nor protection or fertilizer which is already available in the cultivated field.”
He further said, “This season we have planted 2.5 lakh trees in Mehsana district, 3 lakh in Banaskantha, 2 lakh in Patan and 3 lakh in Sabarkantha.” Known as green ambassador of Mehsana district, Patel has so far planted more than 25 lakh trees in parks developed by him in Visnagar in Mehsana district and Derol in Sabarkantha district.
“Mehsana was ranked 18th on the list of green districts five years ago. Today, it is ranked second in the state,” he said. Patel claims that mission Green Gujarat launched in 2008 with the help of state government, forest department officials, local administration and Tirupati Foundation in Visanagar has got tremendous response from the farmers. He said saplings of the trees are available at the state nurseries free of cost if obtained through gram panchayats.