Piplantri, the village that plants trees for women :

• When the indian societies are regularly blemished with the cases of female feticide, infanticide, and other abuses, a village from rajasthan brings a fresh wave of hope and subtle revolution.
• Piplantri, a small Indian village located in the north-western side in district of Rajsamand Rajasthan State, celebrates female newborns with planting trees. It is a countertrend compared to the Indian subcontinent, where the birth of a girl child is generally considered anything but a blessing.
• Due to prenatal ultrasounds, able to indicate foetus’ gender, millions of female unborn didn’t come into the world because their mothers underwent – sometimes being forced – selective abortions.
• Piplantri is the symbol of females’ new life in India. Since 2007, Piplantri’s villagers have been planting 111 trees for each female newborn, whose family must take care of these plants until the girl reach majority.
• The community, composed of 8,000 inhabitants, deposit a total of 21,000 rupees (300 euros) for each girl child born, added to 10,000 rupees given by her parents.
• The initiative was started by the former village head Shyam Sundar Paliwal who had lost his beloved daughter Kiran in 2007. The grief-stricken father wanted to do something to honor the memory of his daughter and convinced the village panchayat to begin the aforementioned practice.
• Socially and environmentally speaking, the initiative achieved significant results.

About 1.5 million trees have been planted over 6 years :

Villagers made the village greener and requalified deforested areas, and they allowed an easier access to water (now available only 3 metres underground, compared with the previous 200 metres). The planting programme also gave professional opportunities to many people; it improved families’ conditions, and allowed the extraction of medicines. The perception of the female figure has positively changed, and crimes dropped.

The villagers, in order to save the trees from termites, had planted over two millions plants of Aloe Vera, which, they later came to know, has considerable value in the urban markets.

Now, they plant Aloe Vera for the purpose of sustainability and make various marketable products like gel, pickle, and juice. The plantation has now become a major source of income for many of the Piplantri families.

The village which used to have the appearance of any other village of the desert now gives off the ambiance of an oasis, with more than 24,000 lush green trees surrounding it. The socio-economical upliftment of Piplantri is the live testimony how a cause can change the entire outlook of a society.