Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday tied a rakhi to a tree to spread awareness on environmental conservation on the occasion of Raksha Bandhan but his real test lies in reconciling development ambitions with the nation’s shrinking green cover.
“The state government has been observing Raksha Bandhan as ‘Bihar Vriksh Suraksha Diwas’ (Tree Protection Day) since 2012 to protect Bihar’s green cover and save the environment…has been focusing on planting saplings under the Jal Jeevan Hariyali Mission. The government is also promoting eco-tourism in the state,” a statement from the chief minister’s office said.
But reports state that Bihar has lost nearly 7,000 acres of forest land because of infrastructure projects.
In the last five years, 1603.8 hectares (area close to the size of Delhi airport) of forest lands were diverted for non-forest works for several infrastructure development projects, according to the state economic survey for 2021-22.
In 2016-17, for 20 projects, a total of 51.53 hectares of forest land were diverted while in 2017-18 the total diversion of forest lands was three times than the previous year. In 2020-21, 432.78 hectares of forest lands were diverted for 47 development projects, said a 2022 Mongabay report.
The survey claimed that the diversion of forest lands was done for laying of pipelines, road construction, irrigation projects and railway project expansions.
Some of the projects where the forest land was diverted for non-forest use included four-laning of National Highway (NH)-2 in Gaya and a railway project in Banka district.
The Varanasi–Kolkata Expressway under the Bharatmala Project diverted 103.22 hectares of forest land in Gaya and Aurangabad alone. A new NH-19 connection to Buxar required another 5.66 hectares.
In 2022, data from the environment ministry claimed that since May 2019 Bihar proposals for diversion of forest lands for a total of 122 development projects.
On March 24, Union environment minister Bhupender Yadav reported 1,73,396.87 hectares of forest land diverted nationwide, with Bihar’s contribution “particularly alarming,” in a Lok Sabha reply to a question by CPI(ML) MP Raja Ram Singh.
On world environment day, environment minister Sunil Kumar launched the song ‘Harit Bihar banayenge, naya Bihar banayenge’ at Patna zoo and noted the state’s progress in increasing forest cover from 7.62 per cent in 2004 to 15.05 per cent at present, with a target of 17 per cent by 2028.
Kumar also planted a sapling at the Rajdani Vatika, a popular park in Patna. The event was attended by several senior bureaucrats.
