Forest Officers & Restoration Ecologists in India - Why Saplings Fail

Looking to speak to the right people for a story! Here's something most of us have done at least once: planted a sapling. At a school function, an office drive, a weekend morning. We water it, take a photo, feel a little better about the world. 🌱 But how many of those saplings ever become a forest? 🪾🌳 That's the question behind a story I'm reporting for The Better India. A new CAG audit of the Green India Mission — the country's decade-long plan to grow its forests back — found that against a target of 1.4 million hectares, barely 34,000 grew. Under 3%. The reasons are more interesting than a headline: funding promised but never fully delivered, trees planted in the easy spots instead of the ones that needed them, drives that ended the moment the photo was taken. But here's what I'm most interested in — because somewhere in India, it is working. There are villages, forest officers, and communities who've grown forests that actually survived, and I want to understand what they're doing differently, and what the rest of us can learn from it. I want to write this for an ordinary reader — no policy jargon, just an honest look at what happens to the trees we plant, and what it really takes to grow a forest that lasts. So I'd love to speak with people who work on the ground: • Restoration ecologists and foresters who can explain what turns a sapling into a forest • Forest officers, current or former, who've seen what works and what doesn't • Communities, NGOs, or villages who've grown forests that lasted and know why Three questions guide the piece: 1. What actually happens to the trees we plant — and why do so few become forest? 2. What's the difference between a plantation and a living forest, and why does it matter to our water, our heat, our monsoon? 3. Where in India is it being done right and what can we learn from the people getting it right? If that sounds like you, or someone you know, please email me at [email redacted]. I'd love to talk. 🍀 The Better India #GreenIndiaMission #Conservation #SolutionsJournalism #Forests #ClimateIndia