Lucknow, Jul 4 (IANS): Over one billion saplings have been planted in Uttar Pradesh during the regime of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath from 2017-18 to 2020-21.

According to a state government spokesman, a massive greening drive has been undertaken in the state with the objective of climate change mitigation, clean air and carbon sequestration.

The year wise detail of plantations done by the government is as follows - in 2017-2018, the government planted 5.71 crore saplings while in 2018-2019 the saplings planted were 11.77 crores.

In 2019-2020, the number of saplings planted was 22.59 crore and 25.97 crore in the following year.

This year, the target plantation is 30 crore which adds up to 95.94 crore.

Over and above the departmental plantations, the citizens and farmers have also contributed to this drive and have planted over five crore saplings in last five years raising the tally of plantation of over one billion samplings.