Planting a record: Volunteers aim for greener Tamil Nadu
	"On October 15, 2006, 2,20,000 volunteers of Isha Foundation will plant seven lakh trees in seven districts of Tamil Nadu and will look after it for the next two years…" People often do obscure things to enter the Guinness Book of world Records. But in Tamil Nadu, volunteers of a Kovai based organisation are attempting to redefine the way you look at Tamil Nadu 's seascape. With a prayer in their hearts and saplings in their hands, volunteers of the Isha Foundation will begin to green the balding seascape of Tamil Nadu. "On October 15, 2006, 2,20,000 volunteers of Isha Foundation will plant seven lakh trees in seven districts of Tamil Nadu and will look after it for the next two years. This will be a Guinness world record," said Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev, Founder, Isha Foundation. Tamil Nadu's forest cover has slipped southwards from 30 per cent to around 17 per cent in the last four decades. This is well below the national average of 23 per cent cover. What is left continues to be scarred by increasing salinity, cyclones, the tsunami and the ongoing battle with human habitation. Isha Foundation, a Kovai based international public service organisation, aims to nurse the forest cover back to 30 per cent within the next 15 years. For the last six months, volunteers have been traveling from village to village, conducting awareness programmes, bringing families and institutions together to nurture these saplings for the marathon effort in October. In 2002 over 80,000 trees were planted in Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu, in 24 hours, making it a Guinness world record for the year. The question now remains; will this break new ground and become another world record or at least change the track record of Tamil Nadu government's effort at forest conservation?