MY KOLKATA EDUGRAPH
ADVERTISEMENT
Regular-article-logo Saturday, 30 August 2025

Earth Day to enhance state's green zone - School students to take pledge to protect environment, plant saplings on August 9

Read more below

OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT Published 03.08.11, 12:00 AM

Patna, Aug. 2: To generate awareness on the importance of green cover and check pollution of natural resources like rivers and ponds among people, the state government has decided to observe August 9 as Earth Day.

Sharing this information with the reporters today, deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi said: “Special programmes would be organised in government and private high schools across the state on the August 9 in which students would take their 11-point pledge (see graphics) to protect the environment.”

The programme would be organised jointly by the environment and forests department and human resource development department.

Pledge apart, each high school would be provided with five saplings by the environment and forests department for plantation on the occasion of the Earth Day.

There are about 3,500 government high schools in Bihar. The number of private high schools that would participate in the Earth Day programme is being ascertained.

Modi, who holds the environment and forest portfolio also, said the state government stood for adding substantial area to the existing green cover in the state.

Bihar has 6,437sqkm of forest area. The forest area covers less than seven per cent of the total geographical area of the state. Ideally a state should have a third of the total geographic area under forest cover.

The deputy chief minister said that celebration of Earth Day apart, the state government was taking several other steps for increasing the green cover.

“We recently used choppers for aerial dropping of seeds in Rajgir hills as part of our move to add to the green cover because carrying out plantation work manually on the hills is very tough,” Modi said.

The deputy chief minister announced that the norms of scheme for promoting plantation through school students had been changed. From now onwards, such plantation work would be promoted through groups of five students. “The groups would be asked to do the plantation work either in schools or at public places so that the impact of the move could be easily visible,” he said.

Earlier, individual students were supposed to do the plantation work in their homes making. It made the task of ascertaining whether the plantation was actually done or not difficult.

Modi also announced that state government would lay special emphasis on carrying out plantation work using funds under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme, which talks of providing 100 days of guaranteed employment to those willing to take benefit of it in rural areas.

Follow us on:
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT