Adopt a tree this monsoon!

Teenager Sujash Goenka got a unique birthday gift from his dad this monsoon -- a geo-tagged image of apple tree saplings planted in his name in a far-off Uttarakhand village.
Instead of throwing party or gifting him gadgets like other dotting fathers, business consultant Sunil decided to adopt trees in his son's name which can be seen by anyone on Google Earth.
What left the youngster emotive was when he learnt that these trees are part of a national campaign to not only fight global warming but also help marginal and BPL farmers earn extra bucks to support their livelihood by selling fruits.

This noble idea of planting trees and then asking people to adopt it by paying for the cost of the sapling and its after-care is started by a group of individuals in Kolkata under the banner of 'Sustainable Green Initiative' (SGI).
Eminent among those who have adopted such trees include celebrated author Ruskin Bond and advertising guru Swapan Seth.
As proof of plantation, each sapling is photographed and geo-tagged with the longitude and latitude metadata embedded into a digital image.

The image is then uploaded onto a public database and can be viewed on Google Earth or any exif map viewers.

"Planting trees is the most simplest and easiest way to combat climate change. But what we are also doing is to show how various tree products like fruits can reduce poverty and aid livelihood. So the benefits of planting trees are two-fold," SGI founder Raj Mohan told PTI.
In partnership with local NGOs, they kicked off their maiden plantation drive with 2000 apple trees in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand earlier this year.