The recent IPL tournament saw BCCI team up with Tata Group to plant 500 trees for every dot ball bowled during the 2024 playoffs and finals. While they do not talk of this as a biodiversity venture, there are many companies that talk of their work on biodiversity, but if you read their sustainability reports of companies, the only action they appear to be taking is planting trees. While planting trees is great for increasing the tree cover in our country, the impact on biodiversity is questionable. The recent IPL will lead to 161,500 saplings being planted and will positively impact India’s tree cover.
Human growth has come at the expense of fauna and flora. As humans needed more space, they cut down forests and chased away wild animals, destroying the ecological cycle. Many plant and animal species have become extinct in the process. Is the process of ecological destruction irreversible? Definitely not! With careful effort, we can reverse many of the side effects of human growth. Building back diversity involves increasing tree cover and bringing back fauna and flora that thrive in our jungles. Many species that are close to extinction need to be regenerated. Planting trees is a small part of the whole process – a beginning but not the end. While some argue that trees will automatically attract fauna and flora, the impact will be slow and ineffective.
In this context, the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s Sustainable Development Goal 15 is devoted to “protecting, restoring and promoting sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably managing forests, combating desertification, and halting and reversing land degradation and biodiversity loss.”
I live in Bangalore and see some interesting efforts to protect and improve the country’s biodiversity. Take the case of the biodiversity park developed by Toyota Kirloskar Motors. Called Ecozone, it is spread across 25 acres within TKM premises. There are 17 theme parks that are designed to create a sense of ecological consciousness among children and various stakeholders. Then you have the efforts of Wipro Foundation, whose Earthian programme promotes sustainability and biodiversity education in schools. They started the butterfly park in 2013 in Bangalore. While not a corporate IIMB’s campus has paid close attention to biodiversity. Its campus boasts of some 20,000 trees and more than 200 species of plants, including horticultural trees and flowering plants. Similarly, another institution that I work with, IIM Raipur has set up a biodiversity park.
I’m not saying planting trees is not required. It is required, but more needs to be done to protect and enhance our biodiversity.
Utkarsh Majmudar 