Indian logistics major Allcargo Group is sharply scaling up its flagship afforestation programme, Project Maitree, with a target of planting 300,000 saplings across 81 villages in Maharashtra during the financial year 2026–27, creating plantation-based livelihood opportunities for around 5,000 farmers and their families.
The expansion is being carried out through the group’s corporate social responsibility arm, Avashya Foundation, and continues one of India’s largest corporate afforestation drives — a programme that has already put more than 1.6 million trees into the ground across the state.
300,000 saplings across four districts
According to the company’s announcement, the FY 2026–27 programme covers the districts of Palghar, Raigad, Nashik and Amravati, where fruit-bearing, timber and multipurpose tree species are being introduced to support both ecological restoration and long-term income for rural households.
Under the programme:
- 220,000 plants have been distributed in Palghar and Nashik, benefiting around 4,400 farmers;
- 30,000 plants have been distributed in Raigad and Karjat, reaching approximately 600 farmers;
- 50,000 plants have been planted in Amravati through a community-based model, enabling whole villages to participate in and benefit from the plantation effort.
The initiative integrates fruit tree-based cultivation into farmers’ existing agricultural practices — a design the company says can strengthen household income and long-term livelihood resilience while expanding green cover.
Livelihoods first: why fruit trees
Project Maitree deliberately focuses on fruit-bearing trees. Unlike purely ecological planting, the model is built to give farming families a recurring income stream: once the trees mature, farmers can sell the produce, market it through the cooperative structures the foundation helps set up, and in some cases sell directly to Allcargo employees — earlier “mango festivals” saw farmers from the Mokhada and Jawhar regions sell produce grown from Maitree trees at the company’s Mumbai office.
The company says the dual approach — environmental conservation plus income generation — also aims to reduce seasonal migration from rural areas by making farming itself more viable.
From 2014 to 5 million by 2030
Project Maitree has run since 2014, inspired by the vision of Allcargo Group’s founder and chairman Shashi Kiran Shetty. Earlier milestones reported by the company and CSR media include more than 1.6 million trees planted by 2026 — a record that earned Shetty a recognition from the Governor of Maharashtra on World Environment Day — and long-range targets of 3 million trees by 2027 and 5 million saplings by 2030 with more than 100,000 farmers engaged.
The tree drive sits inside Allcargo’s broader sustainability agenda, which includes a stated ambition to achieve carbon neutrality by 2040 — ahead of India’s national net-zero target of 2070.
FAKTA
- Programme: Project Maitree, run by Allcargo Group’s CSR arm Avashya Foundation since 2014
- FY27 target: 300,000 saplings across 81 villages in Maharashtra
- Reach: around 5,000 farmers and their families in Palghar, Raigad, Nashik and Amravati
- Species: fruit-bearing, timber and multipurpose trees for income and ecology
- Track record: over 1.6 million trees planted; 5 million by 2030 target
Corporate afforestation programmes like Maitree matter for the climate because every tree locks away carbon dioxide as it grows — and when trees double as livelihoods, the forests actually survive. Watan News follows global plantation and afforestation efforts in its climate coverage.
