Green Bihar;A Green Politicsal warfare

Fiscal Allocation to the Department of Environment & Forest, Bihar(2013-14)

Kumar Deepak

(Environmentalist)

Bihar Budget 2013-14 Fiscal Allocation For the Environment & Forest

Gross Allocation = Rs. 95.86 Crore Rehabilitation of Depleted Forest = Rs. 36.78 Crore Forestation around Canal/Dam & construction of roads/Bridges =

Rs. 26.55 Crore Conservation of Forests & Strengthening Plan Structure for

Plantations = 9.66 Crore

ROADMAP TO A GREENER BIHAR

Mission Hariyali:  Expanding the Forest cover from the current 9.79%,as paer

Indian Forest Survey, Feb 2012) to the 15% of the Gross Geographical Areas...

Implementing Soil & Water Conservation Programmewithin 2 Lakhs Hectares of Land...

Plantation of about 10 Crores plants within 1 Lakh Hectares... Plantation of about 7.5 Crores of plants over the River Dam,

Canal Dam, besides the road & over the Public Land... Under Agro-Forest Scheme, another 6 Crores plants would be

planted...

Agro-Forestation Scheme over Farmer’s land...

1st round has been covering 11 Districts...1st year-Rs. 15/Plant, 2nd Year- Rs.10/plant...3rd Year- Rs. 10/Plant...Work has already been started in 2013...Around 3 Lakhs of Poplar Plants would pe planted under this scheme & apart from the Poplar species other plant species will be plantated in the rainy season...

Trees Conservation Scheme Fulfilment of continuously increasing demands of plant

saplings... Farmers would nursury to developabout 50 Lakhs of Poplar

species...High quality of cuttings of Poplar plantlets is being initiated from Feb2013...

Chief Minister Public Nursury Scheme:  The Environment Depatment will purchase @ the cost of Rs.

14.55/Plantlet... Rest of the Plants will be grown in the rainy season.. 

 

“Eco- Tourism” in Valmiki Tiger Sanctuary:

Developing a standard modern facility based Guest House to attract the by & large number of Eco-Tourists within the premise of the aforesaid Tiger Sanctuary...

Till November 2012, there were 758 Eco-Tourists, have so far rested in the Valmiki Vihar & a total of 3013 Eco-Visitors have so far travelled the Valmiki Tiger Reserve...

New Initiatives in 2013-2014 

Fiscal allocation of Rs. 15.10 Crore to build “Aranya Bhawan” at Sahid Pir Ali Marg,Patna...

3D-Theature & Interpretation Centre in Sanjay Gandhi with the fiscal allocation of proposed building cost is RS. 2.5 Crores...

Chief Minister Urban Forestry Mission will cover large scale plantation drive in the Municipal Corporations, Councils & Panchayats...

Water Rain Harvesting Programme will cover a targetted areas of 40,000 Hectares in which 23,000 Hectares of land is embarked to rehabilitate the Forest Cover...so total of 185 Lakhs Plants would be planted...Riversides, Canalsides & Road sides would cover 8.72 Lakhs, 16.55 Lakhs & 17.34 Lakhs of plants...Plantation Drive would be organized in various institutions as well...

Setting up of VANRAKSHI/VANPAL TRAINING COLLEGE for which Japan International Cooperation Agency have sanctioned a total Rs. of 939.61 lakhs...Rs. 375 Lakhs have already made available...

  Developing Forest Management Information System to retrieve

online information about the existing status of the project in a concerned forest area...

Setting up of Forest Resource Centres in the 12 Districts viz; West Champaran, Muzaffarpur, Madhubani, Motihari, Purnia, Katihar,Sitamarhi, Supaul, Kishanganj, Samastipur, Begusarai & Araria...

Year 2013-14, special plan project is being proposed for House Sparrow Conservation...

  Special Nilgai Counter Programme to restrict the devastation

caused to the crops & farmers in the areas where there is an over crowding of aforesaid animal... The District Magistrate & the S.D.Os of the concerned habitations are the Nodal Animal Conservator Officer...There is a shoot & site Orders to such Nilgai...The Government has proposed to Rs. 500 to the Cartridge & 1000 to bury the killed Nilgai...

 

Mission Hariyali:

an ambitious plan for Environmental sustainability based on the fundamentals of Green Economics to connect the marginalized section of society with the mission of Tree Campaign...The State Government of Bihar has come out with a strategic plan structure to enhance the Forest Cover in the State...The Mission Hariyali connects the Marginalized people with the large scale Tree plantation...The Government shall appoint the most senior member as VRIKSHPAL(Tree-Guard) from a Marginalized Family...This Mission is formalized to connect people from the Below Poverty Line(BPL)...Priorities would be given to Scheduled Caste,Scheduled Tribe & Marginalized...

The State Government would provide an unit 5O Trees to a BPL Family...The BPL Family in proximity to the plantation areas would be given priority & if the desired BPL Family denies,it would be passed on to the next family in the demarcated Plantation drive areas...One Unit of Tree comprising 50 Plant-lets would be given to one family normally & in case when BPL families are in rare in the plantation areas,then One Family would access 4 Unit of Trees....

Tree Plantation would be done besides Roads,Canals,River beds & Dams etc...The Land demarcated for Scheduled Forest & Wild Life Sanctuaries as well as National Parks have been left out from the Mission Hariyali....

The Government would provide an Unit of 50 Trees free of cost to the BPL Family for 30 years....They shall look after the trees what they plant, & when the trees grow they would be assisted with the owner rights...The VRIKSHPAL of Family would sell out the trees product n even the trees as well but they would have to plant a new tree when they cut down the Tree....So the Vrikshpal would have the owner right to even cut down the tree & sell out in the market but would have to plant a new tree on that place...In case the VRIKSHPAL & his/her family won't look after the tree,the Government may cancel out his/her tender...& it would be transferred to others...The Environment Department would have to issue a so cause notice with this regard before 30days prior to the cancellation of the distribution...It would be transferred to the next family for the rest of the period within 3o years....

The Vrikshpal shall not violate the basic rules & regulations assigned under the Plantation Drive...The Vrikspal won't construct any structure over the land & even won't transfer the Distribution into other Hands...The BPL family would plant around 7.5 Million Trees...

Concerns:

Budget is hardly 0.2% of the Gross Fiscal allocation...So the fiscal allocation is just doing formality...The Department of Finance & the Department of Environment & Forest are not establishing a balance between the Mission & Objective...The whole budget is centred around the Plantation & Forestation schemes & it completely fails to trace out the concequences of the Regional Climate Change impact over the State...The State of Bihar has been known for its vulnerability to consequent floods & droughts every year...After the launch of the Mission Hariyali, I was expecting that the plants would be nurtured till its growth & fruitification but the Local Administration has completely been failed to administer the role of the Vrikshpal & his/her accountable responsibility towards the nurturing of plants...I have seen in my villages that almost 90% plants have totally been dried up due to a complete reluctance as far as its management is concerned...

This State Budget has no dimension to bring the State on a path of Green Destination...Lots of huge talks have made into the budget but the surfacing ground truth is showing the plan bankruptcy in the State...Plants have been eartrhened but they dried to die due to mismanagement...

The Budget has no fiscal allocation for the Environment Education & the awareness related programmes...So the Department of Environment understands a Greener approach is all about planting trees only...There is no strategic policy formulation to counter the climate change impact...There is no formidable plan structure for the Solid Waste Management...The Department of Environment is silent over the Biodiversity Conservation & its correlations with the Economics of Ecosystem & Biodiversity...

This Budget has a definite coordination deficit between the Department of Finance & Department of E&F… After observing the whole fiscal allocation & future initiatives, I feel that the Finance Minister having the Portfolio of the Minister Of Environment didn’t consider to call on a specialized committee to discus about the future green policies for the betterment of the State… The Budget is silent over any fiscal allocation to counter the Plastic menace hovering over the entire major urban settlements… There is severe lack between the Department of Public Health & Engineering & Department of Environment over the under-ground water contamination issue of Fluorine, Iron & Arsenic… So most of the occasion the Department of Environment has an undefined role or almost in a state of dilemma…

This Budget lacks International vision & fails to describe about the Green Economics & the Green Governance… The Budget is silent over the Environmental impact of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) Seeds over the soil & the health of Human…

There needs a strict monitoring over the role of Vrikshpal in nurturing the Plant till its adulthood into a grown tree… I have observed at so many placed that Plants have been planted but they all died off… There is a need to generate community awareness about the rights & duties of an individual assigned in our Constitution of India… but its been a disappointing facets of this Budget that the Government didn’t have fiscal allocation for Community Environmental Awareness Programme…

Outcomes:

I welcome the Government’s vision to a Greener Bihar… This would help us to attain the objective of 15% forest coverage… Despite of limited resources, I welcome the Government’s commitment to make the State an Environment friendly place to live… Hariyali Mission is an ambitious Programme to ensure involvement of community particularly people residing Below the Poverty Line… Developing Bihar into an Eco-Tourism Centre of attraction by building VANYA BIHAR in the Valmiki Tiger Reserves is a welcome step…Killing the Nilgai is a cruel act but looking at its over-crowding its been justified… but the Budget didn’t clarify whether the common mass would shoot out the Nilgai or is there any Task Force set up to counter such Nilgai…

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