Many youths connected with various raksha samitis in the State capital as well as those from Chamoli, Uttarkashi and some other districts of the State have tied rakhis to trees on the occasion of the Raksha Bandhan festival on Monday as a gesture of building a sacred bond with the environment. They also took a pledge to protect and conserve the vegetation by all means. According to one such environment activist based in Dehradun, the motto of this initiative was to strengthen the bond between man and nature and the initiative was fairly successful. It is learnt that a large number of women in Uttarkashi and Chamoli tied the scared thread around trees as part of their resolution to carry forward the movement of protecting trees. Yashpal Singh Bisht, police station in-charge Dalanwala, said that a tree plantation was held at the campus of Dalawala police station wherein policemen pledged to protect and conserve vegetation.