Impact of Grow-Trees.com

At Grow-Trees.com, impact lives in small, human moments, workdays earned, meals shared, forests slowly finding their way back. This is a blog of how planting trees, with care and intent, touches lives, landscapes, and wildlife across India and beyond.

We have now planted 22.3 million saplings, creating 1.8 million workdays of jobs; the trees will absorb 447 million kgs of carbon each year. Alongside 155 thematic projects across 25 states and union territories in India and 3 countries overseas, we have been able to support people, wildlife, and ecosystems in many ways.

We distributed 64,000 food meal kits to COVID-returning migrant workers and provided succour to Irula tribal families affected by floods. We have created 65 water ponds across the states of Jharkhand, Rajasthan, UP and Uttarakhand. This includes 57 khaals built on the slopes of Uttarakhand hills to recharge groundwater, in addition to supporting local wildlife and our plantings of Himalayan oak instead of the non-native pine. We supported seaweed cultivation in Tamil Nadu by providing equipment and training to 178 families, helping them earn steady incomes. We trained farmers in Uttarakhand in climate-resilient agriculture, distributed seeds and are also supporting high school education for 4 years of some underprivileged girls covering tuition fees, uniforms, and essentials.

We extended support to RESQINK Association for Wildlife Welfare (RAWW) in Mumbai to strengthen their wildlife rescue and conflict-mitigation efforts through procurement of bird and animal transport cages, rehabilitation tanks for turtles, snake rescue kits, anti-bite gloves, repairs of wildlife enclosures, etc. We created 10 Crocodile Exclusion Enclosures (CCEs) benefitting 20 villages, reducing humancrocodile conflict in Gujarat. Additionally, we facilitated four awareness and capacity-building workshops to engage and educate local communities on coexistence with wildlife.

Our plantations have been designed to aid groundwater recharge, support ecotourism, benefit gurudwaras, monasteries and temples, mitigate pollution and carbon emissions of cities, provide livelihoods to villagers and urban communities, and protect both marquee and lesser-known species including tigers, elephants, hanguls, red pandas, Sunda pangolins, Indian giant flying squirrels, sloth bears, sun bears and colobus monkeys. Our tree plantation work in northern Uganda supports South Sudan refugees, providing shade, food, firewood, and building materials and our Trees for Sunda Pangolins will additionally be of help against forest fires in Indonesia and the neighbourhood.

We have strengthened mangrove belts to shield coastal communities and augment their income from fishery, improved migratory bird and hornbill habitats by planting nesting trees in Tamil Nadu and Nagaland and planted Trees for Ecotourism™ in Sikkim, a state dependent on tourism. 

We have suffered from flooding in our Trees for the Ganga project, from landslide at our Trees for the Himalayas project and from trampling in our Trees for Elephants® project. But we are also pleased to see elephant poop in our Trees for Wildlife™ Corridor in Odisha-Jharkhand. Tiger ST-10 included our Trees for Tigers® planting area in its territory near Sariska; we lost access to our Trees for Tigers® nursery in Maharashtra because of new tiger movement; red pandas have been seen in the area of our plantings. And we have many videos of villagers thanking Grow-Trees.com for providing current income and future security.

There are setbacks, surprises, and signs of hope, flooded sites, animal trails, and quiet thank-yous from people whose lives have changed. Through it all, Grow-Trees.com keeps going, growing resilience where it matters most: alongside communities, in forests that are learning to breathe again.