Isha Foundation plants 7 lakh saplings in TN; entess Guiness records

Chennai, Oct 17 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Governor Surjit Singh Barnala today planted the 7,00,000th sapling at the Raj Bhavan here, marking the culmination of the Guinness record breaking project, ''Green Hands'', by the Isha Foundation, a Coimbatore based NGO associated with the Department of Public Information of the United Nations.

The project was inaugurated in the city on Sunday by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi by planting a sapling at his Gopalapuram residence.

Mr Barnala hailed the efforts of the Foundation to protect the environment and suggested more such projects.

Later, speaking at the ceremony to mark the completion of the project, Isha founder Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev said the aim of the project was to restore the delicate ecological balance of Tamil Nadu and increase the green cover to the desired level.

He hoped that the Guinness record project initiative would encourage other organisations to undertake similar projects.

''I would be the happiest person when others break this record'', he added.

He said the project aimed to increase state's green cover by ten per cent by planting an additional 114 million saplings in the next ten years.

About 2,50,000 volunteers of the foundation along with school children and villagers from 27 districts including Chennai, Coimbatore, Cuddalore and Salem were involved in the ambitious project, he added.

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