Blue Dart Plants Over One Lakh Trees in the Kanha-Pench Wildlife Corridor in 2020

News Clip: CSR Mandate

22nd September, 2020

Blue Dart Express Ltd, India’s leading express logistics service provider and part of the Deutsche Post DHL Group (DPDHL) to plant 1,11,000 trees in collaboration with Grow-Trees in the Kanha-Pench Wildlife Corridor. Blue Dart will complete planting these trees in the CY 2020 and these trees are likely to offset 2 2,22,000 kgs of carbon per year, on maturity*.

The tress being planted include indigenous species like Tamarind, Shisham (North Indian Rosewood), Siras (Frywood), Teak Wood, Karanj (Indian Beech), Custard Apple, Ber (Indian Plum), Kateswari (Red Silk Cotton), Kashid (Yellow Cassia), Wood Apple, Amla (Indian Gooseberry). Preserving the ecosystem around this reserve, rebuild wildlife habitats and supporting tribal communities along with aiding in increasing the forest reserve in the country are some of the objectives behind these plantation drives.

Blue Dart had earlier planted 222,000 trees in the Kanha-Pench Corridor. The unique project of planting trees on the Kanha-Pench Corridor has helped revive the biodiversity of the region, reducing man-animal conflict while providing direct employment to over 70 families every year creating around 5,600 workdays during pit digging and plantation activities alone. Even during the tough times of the pandemic, immense support was provided to the villagers of the Karwahi, Dulara villages by the distribution of dry ration and generation of employment opportunities.

Since 2017, the Company has planted a total of 4,52,000 trees in collaboration with Grow-Trees.com across the five Indian States of Odisha, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Sikkim, which is expected to offset about 9 million kg of its carbon footprint. These large scale plantations have helped promote eco-tourism, increase green cover and support tribal-rural communities, especially women from the Gond tribes.

Commenting on the initiative, Balfour Manuel, MD, Blue Dart Express Ltd said, “Sustainability has been an integral part of our parent company Deutsche Post DHL’s (DP DHL) strategy to emphasize its commitment to being responsible and working with communities across the globe. Our Group-wide environmental protection programme GoGreen’s main objective is to reduce and/or avoid emissions of greenhouse gases and to protect and preserve our environment. Planting these 111,000 trees is another step in this direction and is our effort to make the logistics sector greener and more sustainable. We will continue to find ways to eradicate waste and retain more value in our products in 2020.”

Bikrant Tiwary, CEO, Grow-Trees.com says “It is heartening to see Blue Dart Express Limited step forward and take responsibility for the environment, an aspect of our lives that we take for granted as a community. The rural communities highlight how deforestation has led the wildlife in Pench Tiger Reserve to enter villages, often leading to destruction and injuries in both animals and villagers. The region’s economy is majorly dependent on agricultural activities, which tend to get hampered by animal invasion. The trees planted in the region will provide the resources required to sustain the tiger population in the forests, while also benefitting the rural communities. We envision this collaboration to proving fruitful for the sustainable development of the nearing biodiversity.”

The region marked as the Pench Tiger Reserve is home to a significant population of India’s tigers and ranked among the world’s most important tiger habitats. The purpose of choosing the wildlife corridor between Pench and Kanha National Park for this year’s drive was to allow tiger population residing in the region more mobility, which in turn improves their chances of survival and growth. The trees planted on the Periphery of the Pench Tiger Reserve, in and around the Karwahi village, will secure the habitat of the tiger as well as provide ample forest-based resources to tribal groups living in these areas and dependent on trees for food, fuel and livelihood. In 2018, nine underpasses were also constructed on NH44 between Kanha and Pench Tiger Reserves in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra, to prevent roadkill and provide a safe passage for animals.

Blue Dart is strongly committed towards its surroundings. Under the motto of “Connecting People, Improving Lives”, Blue Dart’s focus lies on the three main pillars, namely GoTeach (Championing education), GoGreen (Protecting the environment) and GoHelp (Disaster management response), successfully impacting communities and the environment.

Blue Dart further champions ‘Mission 2050 – Zero Emissions’, wherein, the brand’s mission is to drive the business towards zero emissions logistics by setting the standard for the future of the transport sector and doing its part to help the world community reach its goal of limiting global warming to less than two degrees Celsius. Under this Mission 2050 initiative, Blue Dart has planted over 452,000 trees in India, over four years, contributing to over 10 per cent of the DPDHL Group’s global target of planting one million trees each year.

• Carbon offsetting capacity of the tree varies from species to species. Considering the lowest value as 20kg /year by a mature tree.
• Maturity of trees varies from species to species, usually for forestry species it is 7-8 years and depends on various factors like soil condition, climatic variations, etc.