Verghese V Joseph –
Green India, an environmental protection project of the Indian Catholic Youth Movement (ICYM), plans to plant 10,000 trees and shrubs saplings across the country and protect the same in a span of two years.
The G India (Green India) project, which focuses on ‘Plantation, Conservation, and Awareness,’ plans to work on creating awareness and educating young people on mitigation and adaptation of climate change and enlightening the youth on ways to reduce the drivers of climate change.
The project is based on the assistance of volunteers, the surrounding community, and benefactors. It is an open platform that offers everyone, especially young people, the joy of planting trees and learning more about the environment through interactive activities and workshops.
As part of its plans to promote sustainability, G India will provide its volunteers across India to plant more trees in their specific locality by providing them seeds or saplings through their diocesan medium. The G India team will also engage them in an awareness drive and training about environmental issues through social media platforms.
To achieve this outcome, G India has appointed an advocate, a social worker, and a psychologist as a part of its core team to conduct training in this initiative.
“We are doing various campaigns like for example, a recent Mango Seed Donation Drive campaign where we will be planting more. We already have been making the youth of India aware through our posts, quiz, and online activities on social media. We will continue to do the same on our social media platforms. We have successfully conducted an awareness program offline recently at National Leader’s Training Programme organized by ICYM. We will be conducting online and offline activity-based awareness programs in the future,” said an ICYM spokesperson.
The resource allocation and budgetary needs are met by several sponsorship drives through ICYM and other diocesan environmental commissions.
The launch of the G India project itself was done by a young environmentalist Ridhima Pandey. G India’s interactive approach to educating the youth about flora and fauna is executed through the initiatives such as using sustainable clothing or providing jute bags instead of plastic/poly bags. The project will also provide a pledge certificate to protect the environment.
G-Hour is another initiative, with the green hour set aside for volunteer work to bring about awareness of the Mother Earth initiative. For the length of volunteering, G India will term it as a Green hour or G points. “We have set level badges for the given range of G hours. Therefore, we hope this will create healthy competition among young people and encourage them to contribute more time and level up,” the spokesperson added.
The first saplings were planted at National Youth Office Bethania Training Center as part of the Pan-India plantation drive in December 2022 by Rev. Fr. Chetan Machado (National Youth Director), National Youth President Adv. Antony Judy, and National Youth Coordinator for YCS/YSM India, Mr. Abhishek Bhattacharjee.
This project was initiated by ICYM National President Advocate Antony Judy under the guidance of Fr. Chetan Machado. His dream behind starting the project was MEGA (Make Earth Green Again) after studying the environmental crisis in his surroundings.
This initiative has the backing of the new chairman of CCBI Youth Commission Bishop of ICYM Most Rev. Ignatius D’Souza. Most Rev. Ignatius D’Souza, Bareilly Diocese.
“This project was recognized by the general audience in January 2023, and we are in the initial phase where we are still developing our identity. We may collaborate with Laudato Si’. Once we have our distinct identity formulated,” the spokes person said.
The unique logo of G India was first unveiled at the Federation of Asian Bishops Conference (FABC) in Bangkok, Thailand, in December 2022 by the then-Chairman of the Youth Commission, Most Rev. Bishop Nazarene Soosai, and renowned environmental activist Miss Ridhima Pandey, in the presence of ICYM National President Advocate Antony Judy and YCS/YSM General Secretary Miss Ashita Jimmy. The project was officially launched on December 13, 2022, in Shillong, Meghalaya, by Kyrmen Shylla (Minister for Revenue and Disaster Management).
Awareness, another primary area of focus of the project, began on the day first on the social media platforms of G India. Young people are periodically informed via interactive quizzes and surveys on significant environmental issues, native plants, endangered species, planting techniques, significant movements, climate activists, etc.
This endeavor aims to increase awareness of climate change and provide an organized space for youth, which will encourage young people from all walks of life to come forward and engage in activities.
We work to improve our surrounding ecosystem for a better future and foster young people a feeling of being one with Mother Earth, so far we have successfully conducted plantation drives in the following dioceses:
- Madhya Pradesh Region
- Jammu & Srinagar
- Bagdogra
- Nagpur
Apart from this, the mission was supported by:
- North East Region
- Diocese of Cochin
- Diocese of Ahmedabad
- Diocese of Bareilly
In these following months, we have also conducted a few campaigns like earth hour and G-resolution, which were highly acknowledged by various youths in different dioceses.
In addition, G India also did certain awareness programmes like Zero Waste Day, World Health Day, and Mother Earth Day.
“Currently, we are in the process of volunteers. So far, we have got 50 volunteers from different regions during the National Leadership training program held by ICYM at Don Bosco technical institute, New Delhi, in March 2023. These volunteers will eventually help us in our plantation drive and promotion of our project,” the spokesperson added.