The Forest Department is gearing up to plant four crore trees in a statewide plantation drive on July 1. But it might end up holding little meaning, based on what this paper observed recently at Maharashtra Nature Park (MNP), where the state kicked off its ambitious tree plantation drive last July.

A visit to the park showed that less than a year later, half the trees had withered, and several had died. But whether the plants survived or not seemed to depend not on the weather or soil, but on who had planted them — a common man or VIP.