Bihar records plantation of one crore saplings in a single day

An IAS officer of Bihar cadre created history of sorts by planting nearly 1 crore saplings in a single day.

The Guinness Book of World Records has registered plantation of 5,41,176 saplings on July 15 this year in Pakistan. Bihar did it 20 times more and edged out Pakistan from the record book.

The man behind the mission is Tirhut Commissioner SM Raju, who hails from Karnataka and is an agriculture graduate.

“I’ve been nursing a dream to plant 1 crore saplings in a single day for two years. I achieved this goal through active cooperation of village panchayats and mukhias of my division,” Raju said.

Raju engaged 3 lakh people from 8,463 panchayats and 7,500 villages of six districts of Tirhut division. “We planted the 96,19,870 saplings under the rural job scheme NREG,” said an ebullient Raju.

He said though he had been planning for this day for two years, when he got the news of Pakistan’s Environment Ministry getting the Guinness certification, he decided to beat their record as soon as possible.

“I discussed my idea with the Bihar Chief Secretary and with the blessings of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, I plunged into this mission and ultimately succeeded,” said Raju.

“With groups of four families each planting 200 trees; now they must protect the saplings for three years, till the plants grow sturdy. During this period, they will be paid,” Raju said.

He has charted out a blueprint to protect the planted trees and to provide job to villagers simultaneously through his mission.

“Since Tirhut region in north Bihar is a flood-prone area, mukhias here find themselves unable to provide jobs to poor villagers throughout the year. So I’ve engaged them into this programme,” Raju said.

The workers will get the full pay of about Rs 102 under the rural job scheme if they can ensure the survival of 90 per cent of the plants under their care. For a 75-80 per cent survival rate, they will be paid only half the wage. If the survival rate is less than 75 per cent, the families in the group will be replaced.

The villagers of Tirhut have vowed to protect the trees at any cost and they’re taking constant vigil to the planted saplings.

“They seem to feel as if the trees they are protecting belong to them,” Raju said.

The non-fruit trees like neem, jamun, gulmohar and peepal have been planted along the state and national highways while the fruit-bearing saplings such as the guava, mango, litchi, lemon and amla were planted in the villages.

Raju explained that this tree plantation mission will promote social forestry in flood-affected areas of north Bihar.

A total sum of Rs 700 crore would be spent on this scheme in three years, said Raju, who was also actively associated with the Chief Minister’s much-praised Vikas Yatra.

Now, a beaming and confident Raju hopes to get his mission and the name of the State reflected in The Guinness Book.