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Pakistani soldier sets tree planting record

A soldier of the Pakistani Army set a Guinness world record on September 29 by planting the most number of tress in a single day, the Pakistan media has reported.

According to reports, Muhammad Yousuf Jamil, Lance Naik in the Pakistani Army, successfully planted 20,101 saplings in 24 hours breaking the previous world record which was set by Ken Chaplin, a Canadian citizen in 2001. Chaplin planted 15,170 red pine seedlings in a day near Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Canada on June 30, 2001.

Jamil broke the record in the time span of 18 hours and 40 minutes. He had a rest time of four hours.

He started planting the saplings on Tuesday at 2 p.m. local time after an inauguration ceremony in the presence of a representative of the Guinness Book of World Records in the Pakistani eastern city of Gujranwala.

Jamil travelled 35 kilometres to the spot before beginning work over 12 acres, the area of his project. Representatives of Guinness did not count 400 saplings that were “poorly planted”.

Lieutenant General Muhammad Mustafa Khan, Core-Commander, Mangla cantonment awarded him a prize of Rs. 6,00,000 ($6,976). Jamil had also been promoted. In July 2009, Pakistan already received a certificate from the Guinness Book acknowledging the planting of as many as 5,41,176 mangrove tree saplings by a team of some 300 volunteers in a day on 800 acres of land at Keti Bunder, Thatta district, in Pakistan's southern province of Sindh.

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