Bihar undertakes massive plantation to generate employment - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

A massive plantation drive has been launched in Bihar 's Muzaffarpur district to prevent soil erosion and also to generate employment for the poor villagers. The authorities have linked the plantation scheme with the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) to involve the villagers in planting saplings by way of providing means of livelihood for them. The villagers are involved in various flood affected districts and regions of the state in planting mango, bamboo and jamun (Eugenia jambolana) for which they get paid on a regular basis. The scheme is proving to be very beneficial for the State. "Now we can give employment. We can also protect immense wealth that is agricultural land which thousands of acres every year, it is eroding through many rivers. Our total forestry is only 6.87 percent, according to forest and environment department in Bihar State . So now through plantation, we can increase enormously (that area)," said S.M. Raju, Commissioner, Muzaffarpur. This is by far the best scheme initiated by the government," said Inder Bhushan Singh, a villager. A total of 12 million saplings have already been planted under the drive which has provided employment to 60, 000 families. The authorities plan to plant upto 30 million trees by the end of this financial year. Floods ravage Bihar almost every year during the monsoon, causing widespread destruction and claiming hundreds of lives.