New Delhi, June 6 -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday planted a banyan sapling at the Bhagwan Mahavir Vanasthali Park in Delhi, symbolically launching the Aravalli Green Wall projects. On World Environment Day, which is celebrated today, PM Modi also highlighted the importance of reforesting the Aravalli range under the Aravalli Green Wall project. "In the Aravalli range and beyond, in addition to the traditional planting methods, we will encourage new techniques especially in urban and semi-urban areas where there are space constraints. Plantation activities will be geo-tagged and monitored on the Meri LiFE portal", PM Modi said in a post on X (formerly Twitter). He highlighted that the region faces multiple environmental challenges which the government is committed to addressing. "It is widely known that the Aravalli range is one of the oldest on our planet, covering Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. The past several years have brought to the fore several environmental challenges relating to this range, which our government is committed to mitigating. Our focus is to rejuvenate areas linked with this range. We are going to work with the respective local administrations and going to emphasise things such as improving water systems, curbing dust storms, stopping eastward expansion of the Thar desert and more," PM Modi wrote. "Today, on #WorldEnvironmentDay, we strengthened the #EkPedMaaKeNaam initiative with a special tree plantation drive. I planted a sapling at the Bhagwan Mahavir Vanasthali Park in Delhi. This is also part of our effort to reforest the Aravalli range - the Aravalli Green Wall project," he said. HT reported on June 4 that the Aravalli Green Wall project will look at large-scale landscape restoration across 4 states by removal of prospis juliflora (a kind of mesquite) and planting of native species, especially in reserved forest areas under the forest departments. Trees such as the khair (Indian gum arabic), ronjh (White-barked Acacia); dhau (axlewood), pilkhan (white fig), salai (Indian frankincense), among others, are native to the belt. Aravallis are likely the country's oldest mountain range, spanning 670 km, and runs in a southwesterly direction from Delhi to Gujarat. It boasts 22 wildlife sanctuaries including four tiger reserves (Ranthambore is one) and bird parks. It is the source of important rivers including the Chambal. And it hosts the only primary forest in the National Capital Region, with tools from the lower Palaeolithic period (3.3 million years to 300,000 years ago) and cave art being found in the hills around the forest....