World is much greener than it was 20 years ago, says new study; credit goes to India & China

London, March 2: Often do we hear that the world is increasingly turning grey with senseless drives of deforestation. Ecological devastation is something that has plagued the entire planet as efforts are being multiplied to accommodate more and more people. Destruction of forests and greenery is often seen as a major reason which is pushing Mother Earth towards a sinister consequence.

To those who feel it's an age of pessimism and nothing much can be done to reverse the trend, here is some good news. A new study has revealed that Planet Earth has turned significantly greener in the last 20 years.

The credit for this betterment of greenery goes to two Asian nations and they are India and China. Both countries - often dubbed as the economies the world will look up to next - are also victims of endless pollution and they have planted a whole lot of trees to curb it. It's still a big battle to be won but at least, the effort can be found.

UK-based Lad Bible cited the research as saying that there has been five per cent more greenery compared to the amount that was seen in the 2000s.

Overall, an area larger than that of the Amazon rainforest (2 million square miles of extra green cover) has been planted. The study was undertaken by a team from the US's Boston University.

Chi Chen, the lead of the research team, said the two Asian powerhouses that have taken to afforestation account for one-third of the greening but contain only nine per cent of the earth's land area under vegetation cover.

The research team worked alongside US space agency Nasa whose MODIS tool was used to understand the growth of the planet's greenery. The tool is a camera that goes around the earth on two satellites taking high-resolution pictures.

While India has contributed to 6.8 per cent of the growth, China's corresponding contribution is 6.6 per cent.