Kumar Deepak over the Fiscal Allocation on Environment in the Budget (2013-14 ) in the State of Bihar....

1. Green Bihar;
A Green Politicsal warfare
Fiscal Allocation to the Department of Environment & Forest, Bihar
(2013-14)
Kumar Deepak
(Environmentalist)

2. 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

3. 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...

4. 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..

5. “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...

6. 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...

7.  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,Si
tamarhi, Supaul, Kishanganj, Samastipur, Begusarai & Araria...

8.  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...

9. 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....

10. 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...

11. 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...

12. 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...

13. 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…

14. 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…

15. 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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