Patna: The Bihar govt will intensify public awareness campaigns and plantation drives to increase the state’s green cover to 17% by 2028, environment, forest and climate change minister Ram Chandra Prasad said on Wednesday.Addressing a function at Aranya Bhawan on the occasion of Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali Day, the minister said public participation would be key to achieving the target, which has been incorporated into the Fourth Agriculture Road Map (2023-28).Prasad said Bihar has already achieved the 15% green cover target set under the Third Agriculture Road Map, with the state’s green cover rising from 6.07% in 2001 to 15.05% at present.He said the Hariyali Mission, launched in 2012 to expand green cover, has led to the plantation of 46.07 crore saplings across the state between 2012-13 and 2025-26.The minister stressed the need to turn environmental conservation into a mass movement through initiatives such as Van Mahotsav and Bihar Earth Day celebrations in schools, where students take an 11-point pledge to protect the environment.Referring to the Centre’s “Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam” campaign, Prasad said data uploaded on the Meri LiFE portal showed plantation of 4.42 crore saplings in 2024-25 and 1.85 crore saplings in 2025-26.He said the Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali campaign, being implemented through 15 departments with the rural development department as the nodal agency, was promoting water conservation, afforestation and other environmental initiatives across the state.According to the environment department, 26,590 check dams and other water conservation structures were constructed and 23.67 crore saplings planted between 2019-20 and 2025-26 under the campaign.Officials said Bihar has set a target of planting 5 crore saplings in 2026-27, against which 50.69 lakh saplings have already been planted.
