India's forest cover has increased by one per cent in the last five years and similar progress will be made through people's participation, Union Minister for the environment, forest and climate change, Prakash Javadkar has said.
Speaking to media during his maiden visit to Mumbai's National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) on World Environment Day on Thursday, he asked people to plant and help grow at least 10 trees as part of their contribution to protecting the environment.
Javadkar was on his first official visit to Mumbai after taking charge as minister in the second Modi government. The minister planted three saplings at Gulshan Mahal, the historic building in Films Division that houses a part of NMIC, as part of the celebration of World Environment Day yesterday.
Film personalities Anupam Kher, Jackie Shroff, Shyam Benegal, Kiran Shantaram, Varsha Usgaonkar and others were present on the occasion. The Minister expressed his heartfelt gratitude to all artists for coming together and joining the movement.
Javadkar also unveiled a people's campaign #SelfiewithSapling on Environment Day eve, urging everyone to plant a sapling and to post the selfie with the sapling on social media.
Javadekar interacted with around 100 film personalities, including Shyam Benegal, Subhash Ghai, Ramesh Sippy, Ketan Mehta, Jabbar Patel, Kiran Shantaram, Shilpa Shetty, among others present.
The minister also planted saplings in the premises of Environment Ministry in New Delhi along with the Minister of State in the Environment Ministry Babul Supriyo, renowned cricketer Kapil Dev, Bollywood actors Jackie Shroff and Shri Randeep Hooda and noted singer Malini Awasthi.