Cool Bihari: June 2010

Monday, June 07, 2010

Green Initiative

On the eve of world’s environment day, it’s heartening to see encouraging green initiatives in Bihar. Civil Servent SM Raju, has come up with a novel way of providing employment to millions of poor in the eastern state of Bihar.

BBC reports “His campaign to encourage people to plant trees effectively addresses two burning issues of the world: global warming and shrinking job opportunities. “

Evidence of Mr Raju's success could clearly be seen on 30 August, when he organised 300,000 villagers from over 7,500 villages in northern Bihar to engage in a mass tree planting ceremony. In doing so the agriculture graduate from Bangalore has provided "sustainable employment" to people living below the poverty line in Bihar.

Mr Raju has linked his "social forestry" programme to the central government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) which is also designed to provide employment to poor people.