A tree for every reason, seems to be the aim of Grow-Trees.com, as the 15-year-old social enterprise now partners with the Maharashtra government to plant saplings in rural and urban areas to increase the State’s green lungs.

The organisation plants about three million trees every year, says Vipul Gajera, Chief Executive of Grow-Trees.com - the initiative that germinated following its co-founder Pradip Shah’s visit to Israel, where his host planted 100 trees on his behalf. That inspired a venture that now makes it possible for anyone to plant a tree on another’s behalf, at ₹85 a tree, he says.

“I can plant trees on my wife’s birthday or my daughter’s birthday or my wedding anniversary. Or similarly, corporates can plant trees on employees’ birthdays or customers’ birthdays or… …The idea was to enable individuals as well as corporates to plant more trees and not just plant it,… dedicate them for various purposes, greet people with the trees,” Gajera told businessline.

Shah is founder of credit rating agency Crisil and currently heads IndAsia Fund Advisors Private Ltd. He co-founded Grow-Trees.com with son Karan. The organization is “predominantly” into tree plantations, says Gajera, having planted trees from Jhansi to Kashmir, Nagaland, Chennai, Rajasthan and Gujarat; besides three international projects in Indonesia, Tanzania and Uganda.

“In total we have planted more than 20 million trees,” said Gajera. In Maharashtra alone, the initiative planted more than 14 lakh trees, of which more than 640,000 trees were part of the Kanha-Pench corridor, to improve the tiger habitat, he said.

The latest Memorandum of Understanding with the Maharashtra government involves land identification by the State, for planting trees. “Maharashtra government’s role will be to identify (land) and give us right to plant trees, not the land right, just rights to plant trees,” he says, adding that the intention is to rope-in corporates to fund the trees.

The initiative comes as cities battle air and other environmental pollution, as trees get cut for various projects.   

Tree audits

The trees are maintained for a year by Grow-Trees, he says, following which it is managed by the community through a structured system of support, wages, and third-party tree audits – in the process generating employment as well.  

Trees that do not survive are replenished by the initiative, he says, adding that the aim is to make the tree plantation venture self-sustaining. Its sister concern Pangea is into carbon credits, says Gajera, where companies that are unable to reduce their carbon emissions beyond a certain level, attempt to off-set this and improve their carbon footprint by planting the required number of trees.

Satellite mapping

Pointing out that they are a technology-driven plantation company, Gajera said, people planting trees can get customised certificates, and track their project. Every project has satellite mapping etc, so companies get satellite-based analysis on the changes in the area because of the trees – improvement of the carbon situation, temperature trends and soilquality changes, he points out.

Published on June 22, 2025