Odisha: M3M Foundation has embarked on a unique environmental initiative to plant one million trees across India in the next three years. Named as ‘VrishkArpan’, the initiative will be conducted in collaboration with the forest departments of various state government and non-governmental organizations. Until now, 15,617 trees have been planted at Bemta village that falls under the Kokerama Gram Panchayat of Sundargarh district in Odisha, in the first phase. M3M Foundation has also joined hands with the CSR Foundation in this regard. The initiative will alleviate poverty, by planting the fruit bearing trees and make villages sustainable and boost the local economy.
‘VrikshArpan’ comes amid the COVID-19 pandemic which has hit the marginalized section of the society hard through unemployment, poverty and consequently limited access to health and education facilities. VrikshArpan aligns with United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals- 12,13 and 15 by 2030 and India’s vision of increasing total area under green cover to 33 percent.
“Tree plantation entails a plethora of benefits for the local community. VrishArpan’ is a holistic initiative that will have a major role in transforming India’s rural economy. It will be implemented through multi-stakeholder engagement and grass-root level participation to enable a positive. The initiative underscores our commitment to augmenting government efforts to increase afforestation. The initiative addresses environmental degradation and mitigates climate change concerns,” said Dr. Payal Kanodia, Trustee, M3M Foundation.
The plantation initiative in Odisha involves the participation of the rural population and will facilitate community development. It will enable marginalized people to gain seasonal employment. Trees are planted mostly on private lands which are upland, barren and of no economic value to the landowners. The participants have chosen high-value trees for plantation such as teak, cashew nuts, fruit-bearing trees and hardwood trees.
M3M Foundation, the philanthropic arm of M3M Group; is working towards bringing an equitable development for attaining a brighter India. Education, environment, health, disaster management and socio-economic development are its key areas. The Foundation believes in taking an innovative approach to address social issues by developing a self-sustained program.
Recently, the Haryana Government inked MoU with M3M Foundation to facilitate students’ online preparation for government jobs. The MoU aligns with Haryana government’s vision to link one lakh candidates to government jobs in two years.
In the past year, the Foundation has undertaken many initiatives in this direction. It has launched ‘iMpower’ an education and skill-development initiative that aims to build a community-led Worksite Upliftment Programme for construction workers. During the Covid-19 pandemic, it launched a project called ‘Kartavya’ to provide food and essential sanitation items to construction workers and families. To date, it has helped two lakhs of stranded people with ration and other essentials. It is reaching out to 3000 people daily under the project.
In the area of education, its work includes disbursal of liberal scholarships under its project ‘Sakshar’ to the financially deprived students, and empowering the marginalized section of the society with basic digital literacy skills. In another initiative called ‘Sarvodya’, M3M Foundation plans to support and facilitate 13 villages of Orrisa to become self-sustainable in the next three years.
