Respected judges, teachers and my dear friends,
I stand before you to speak on a subject on which our very life depends — the need of tree plantation.
Pollution has become a big problem in our country. The air of our cities is so thick with smoke that children cough on their way to school, and the summer heat grows fiercer every year. The causes are not far to seek : the smoke of factories and vehicles, the burning of waste, and above all the reckless cutting of trees for roads, buildings and firewood.
Trees are the lungs of the environment. They absorb the carbon dioxide that we breathe out and give back the oxygen that we breathe in. Their roots hold the soil and stop floods; their branches break the force of the wind and bring rain. A single old tree gives shade to a hundred travellers, fruits to birds and children, and leaves that enrich the soil. Without trees there will be no rain, no crops and no life.
What can we do ? Each one of us can plant at least one sapling every monsoon and, more important, water and protect it for the next two years. We can celebrate our birthdays by planting trees instead of cutting cakes, and we can persuade our schools and gram panchayats to protect the trees of our village.
Friends, a tree planted today is a promise to the next generation. Let us all take this promise today — one student, one tree.
Thank you.
