JAMMU, Aug 24: District Administration Jammu, led by DC Rakesh Minhas today launched ‘Paalna’, a plantation campaign built on a single departure from convention: no sapling is planted without an adopter
. Every one of the 60,000 trees planted across 815 educational institutions has been adopted by a student or teacher, who will name it, care for it, submit monthly reports on its condition for one full year, and received a certificate bearing a photograph of their tree.
Each tree also has a designated guardian for periods when schools are closed, so that care does not lapse during vacations. The district will publish how many of them survive. The National Informatics Centre, Jammu, has developed a dedicated web portal and dashboard tracking the survival, maintenance and growth of every individual plant over its lifetime — tree by tree, school by school.
“Every tree here has a name and a child responsible for it. And every month, we will publish publicly how many are still alive,” said Deputy Commissioner Jammu, Dr Rakesh Minhas.
"Paalna means to raise something — that is the difference between planting a tree and growing one.” Chief Conservator of Forests, Jammu, Dr VS Senthil Kumar, who inaugurated the campaign alongside the Deputy Commissioner, described the model as a novel approach that assigns clear responsibility for each sapling, and said it could be replicated across the Jammu province.
A second drive was led by both officers at GGMHSS Kandoli, Nagrota, with plantation completed across all 815 institutions through the day. Subsequent phases will extend the adoption mechanism to hospitals, other government institutions and roadside plantations. Beyond increasing green cover, the initiative seeks to build a lasting culture of environmental stewardship among students.
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