Vanishing saplings

Any idea how many thousand saplings were planted in different states on Sunday as part of the World Environment Day celebrations? Well, no one has the exact figures. But the fact remains that ministers, MLAs, MPs, film actors and other celebrities, as also NGOs – all take part in the World Environment Day celebrations on June 5 and plant saplings. Similarly, thousands of saplings are also planted across the country during the annual Van Mahotsav week which is observed in July. All these VVIPs and celebrities, while taking part in the two annual tree-planting festivals, also make it a point to ensure that their photographs are being taken while planting the saplings and that those are sent to newspaper offices and TV news channels, apart from posting them on social media. There is no survey conducted on the status of saplings planted in the previous years. But there is a likelihood that VVIPs and celebrities will not be able to locate the saplings which they had planted last year or in the previous years. This is also true with various government agencies. One central paramilitary force had, a few years ago, "created" a world record by planting a large number of saplings within about an hour in a lower Assam district. One year later, a couple of local reporters went to find out how the saplings were doing. To their utter surprise, they could hardly see any plants in that area planted just one year before. A few years ago, a journalist from Imphal had filed an RTI petition in the Manipur forest department seeking information about how many saplings were planted by the department in the preceding 10 years and wanted to know about the locations where those plants were. The department reportedly provided the figure, but could not apparently show them the forests those saplings should have created. The scenario probably will be the same in Assam, and for that matter in most other states too. But when there is a will, there is a way. Delhi, for instance, had 20% green cover in 2013, which rose to 23.06% in 2021, as per the India State of Forest Report 2021. Are any such statistics available about Assam and the other North-eastern states?