In order to increase greenery, Forest Division Office Saptari, Rajviraj planted 100 saplings on the roadside of Tilathi Koiladi Rural Municipality-1 under Rajviraj-Kunauli road in 078/079. Currently, there is not a single plant that was planted by the employees at a cost of 10 lakh rupees.
In the same year, trees were also planted along Hulaki highway by spending 25 lakh rupees. There are only 272 plants planted there including "tree-guard".
The office had asked the employees to plant saplings under the Provincial Forest Development Program from Sehra Bridge to Balan Bridge located in Balan Bihul Rural Municipality-2. However, the plants died because the staff did not pay attention to see whether the plants grew/did not get water and fertilizer. Due to lack of protection, 'tree-guard' is also disappearing .
These are only representative of the budget in the name of tree plantation.
The office has spent one crore 53 lakh 75 rupees on tree plantation in the financial year 078/079 to 080/081 . In the financial year 078/079, 62 lakh 50 thousand rupees, 65 lakh rupees in 079/080 and 26 lakh 25 thousand rupees in 080/081 have been spent on plantation. However, rather than increasing the greenery by protecting the planted plants, it seems that the budget is only spent on the maintenance of the office.
In the current financial year, the office had to plant a total of 711 saplings along the Hulaki Highway located in Rajviraj Municipality-1 from Padaria tol to Khando Pul and along the roadside of Tilathi Koiladi Rural Municipality-3 Sakarpura. By Thursday, a total of 75 saplings have been planted along the Hulaki highway, while not a single sapling has been planted on the roadside of Sakarpura. However, the office has released the money for tree plantation before 12 o'clock on Wednesday (June 25).
The office source said that 23 lakh rupees were disbursed to the Forest Officer Baijnath Mandal who was given the responsibility of plantation. Permission has been given to plant 511 saplings along Hulaki road and 200 saplings in Sakarpur along with 'tree-guard'. However, due to the old practice of clearing trees before planting, stakeholders say that the tree plantation work has not been effective.
'Who doesn't know that the account will be suspended on June 25, why don't they plant trees before that? Who has the time to look at the plantations that have been made after clearance? Local residents say, 'If you search the place where plantations have been spent millions, you will not find any plants and how can you understand that plantations were made?'
The Forest Authority claimed that the work of planting saplings is going on . "I have planted the plants," he said, "it will be done within a few days."
The head of the office, Subhash Chandra Das, admitted that he paid 22/23 lakh rupees to the employee who was responsible for planting the saplings according to 'Stimet'. "Because we have to plant trees technically, we have given the staff to do the work, after the work is done, they will clean the trees," he said.
