Van Mahotsav 2022: Know Why We Celebrate with its History and Significance
By Radhika Agarwal |
Van Mahotsav is celebrated every year in the first week of July as a national event. This week-long campaign is celebrated with enthusiasm in India in which people show their dedication towards the environment by planting lakhs of saplings. But as one of the responsible packers and movers of India, we call upon more people to join this campaign.
Van Mahotsav is made up of two words, in which 'Van' means forest and 'Mahotsav' means festival. As we know that nature resides in the soul of India and on the other hand India is also known as the land of festivals. This is the reason why Van Mahotsav is celebrated as a festival here with so much enthusiasm.
History of Van Mahotsav:
This tree plantation drive was started in the year 1950 by the Union Minister for Agriculture and Food KM Munshi. In the same year he declared it a national event to be observed in the first week of July and named it Van Mahotsav.
When is 'Van Mahotsav' celebrated?
Van Mahotsav is celebrated every year in India during the first week of July. Like every year, Van Mahotsav 2022 will also be celebrated from July 1 to July 7. During this period, people all over India plant lakhs of trees.
Why is Van Mahotsav celebrated in the rainy season?
It is worth noting that the basic objective of Van Mahotsav is not only to plant a tree, but also to nurture it throughout life. Rain creates a favorable environment for plants to survive in the soil. This is the reason why Van Mahotsav in India is celebrated during the monsoon season.
Van Mahotsav 2022 and its significance
Deforestation is one of the biggest concerns as well as challenges standing before the entire human race today. Deforestation is one of the major factors of climate change and it is happening very fast.
According to the Global Forest Watch, during the years 2019 and 2020, 38.5 thousand hectares area of tropical forest has been deforested in India. If we talk about the last one decade, there has been a decrease of 16 percent in the forest area due to deforestation in the country.
These figures are quite frightening, that too when there is a lot of damage due to severe floods, tsunamis and rise in temperature all over the world. We need to do a lot to prevent these terrible calamities. Planting trees on a large scale is a simple solution to prevent rise in temperature and soil erosion. But to do this, people also have to be motivated to plant trees. In such a situation, the importance of Van Mahotsav becomes very considerable.