It’s not a secret that the inhabitants of most Indian metros are ecologically destroying the cities. Former VJ and popular comedian Jose Covaco’s video message (above) encouraging people to help them plant trees in Mumbai comes at just the right time.

In this video, Covaco talks about his collaboration with the Mumbai-based non-profit organisation The Turning Tide, run by George Remedios, which collects and sells recyclable material to buy and nurture seedlings.

As Covaco points out, planting trees is the easy part – it’s often done to either assuage oneself or create a photo-op – but the real work likes in taking care of the sapling. As he puts it, “Trees are a lot like kids. You can’t just put a kid in soil and expect it to grow.”

“We really really need to proactively offset the damage we’re doing to our cities,” says Covaco. “We want our kids and future generations to have all the things that we had. We can’t just leave them these hot, angry cities. That would be a really shi**y thing to do.”