From Vrindavan to Kasganj: the 2018 drive with ONGC

On Sunday, 15 July 2018, about 1,700 farmers from 20 villages around Vrindavan gathered in the courtyard of Chandrodaya Mandir. ONGC and Khushhali Foundation distributed 12,600 fruit saplings that morning — Pratapgarh amla, Allahabad L-49 guava, grafted lemon, Kandhari pomegranate, Thai apple ber and bel — and the drive's goal of 60,000 saplings around Mathura was announced. By 15 August it had been met, in about 160 villages of the district.

ONGC was by then the third public-sector company to back the campaign, after IRCON in 2016–17 and SAIL in 2017. With its support a second phase began on 31 August at Saraswati Shishu Mandir, Bhojipura, and moved through Lavakheda, Nawabganj and the Silver Law College on Pilibhit Road in Bareilly.

The largest camp of the second phase came on 29 September at Naujheel in Mathura, where about 2,000 farmers were joined by Union Minister Shri Giriraj Singh and MP Smt. Hema Malini. The season closed on Gandhi Jayanti, 2 October, at Shri Tej Singh Madhyamik Vidyalaya in Kasganj, with the District Magistrate among the guests. In six weeks the second phase put 31,000 more saplings into the hands of about 6,100 farmers.