LUCKNOW, June 26 -- Children born in the first week of July will receive a sapling and a Green Gold Certificate as a gift from the Uttar Pradesh government.

The initiative, a part of Van Mahotsav, the annual plantation drive, will include all government health facilities - district hospitals, community health centres (CHCs), primary health centres (PHCs), and other government healthcare facilities. Till the child grows up, it will be the responsibility of the parents to plant and protect the sapling, just as they would take care of their child.

Under the Van Mahotsav - which runs between July 1 and July 7 - divisional forest officers have been directed to visit hospitals and coordinate with health officials to ensure that every institut...