The Opium Toffee is a love story set in the Punjab and London of the 1980s. In a unique initiative, author Khushwant Singh, The Hoshiarpur Literary Society, and Punjab Forest Department collaborated to plant trees in an endeavour to eliminate the carbon footprint of Khushwant Singh’s upcoming novel, The Opium Toffee. The Punjab Forest Department carried out this plantation at Punjab Forest Nursery in Muallanpur. The department planted 1,500 trees, including species like shishma, kanakchampa, rajhain, ssukh chain, Australian kikar, kaindu.
Every writing and publishing activity leads to the release of greenhouse gases, and the major contributor is carbon dioxide and methane. According to Singh, this idea came from a conversation with a friend from the organisation, Sustain to Survive. “I am sure that the step that we have taken will find roots, and many such initiatives will follow. Rough estimates suggest that 15 trees over a life cycle can offset one ton of CO2e. Keeping in mind the various steps involved in writing and publishing, the mortality of plants in forest conditions, etc., I figured that 1,500 trees would be a safe figure to plant,” explains Singh.
The Opium Toffee is a love story set in the Punjab and London of the 1980s.
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