Bihar forest department takes on highway work — and responsibility for forest clearance

The MoU explicitly tasks the department responsible for protecting forests with delivering a road project and facilitating its statutory permissions. (File photo)

In an unusual agreement signed with Bihar’s Road Construction Department (RCD), the state forest department has taken responsibility for obtaining forest clearance for a highway widening project that will be executed by the department itself on forest land.

Signed on September 26 by Bihar’s Head of Forest Force (HoFF) Arvinder Singh and RCD Engineer-in-chief Uma Kant Rajak, the memorandum of understanding (MoU) covers widening and strengthening a 10.5-kilometre stretch of National Highway 333 from a single-lane road to a two-lane carriageway through Gangata forest in Munger district.

The MoU explicitly tasks the department responsible for protecting forests with delivering a road project and facilitating its statutory permissions.

According to the Environment ministry’s single-window Parivesh portal, the project requires 2.1 hectare of forest land from Bhimband Wildlife Sanctuary, for which the Public Works Department sought forest clearance in April 2023 and wildlife clearance in February 2024. The application status reads “Pending at State.”

Asked about the conflict of interest between the forest department’s role in scrutinising forest clearance applications and its project-delivery commitments to the RCD, HoFF Singh said, “That MoU is being withdrawn.” He did not comment on the circumstances that led to the department signing the agreement.

The terms of the MoU are explicit. Clause 4.2 requires the forest department to “extend all possible cooperation for obtaining and processing all necessary Forest Clearance/Forest Diversion approvals” and compliance with conditions imposed by the competent authorities.

It also commits the department to cooperating with the authorities for “expeditious processing” of forest clearance and related statutory permissions.

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Under Clause 4.3, the forest department must facilitate the availability of the required site or forest land. Together, these provisions give the forest department a direct stake in securing approvals and completing a project whose execution must also comply with forest safeguards.

The MoU’s scope extends to the project’s finances. It says the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO), Munger, would function as its Drawing and Disbursing Officer, processing bills and paying the road contractor after an executive engineer from the RCD checks and countersigns them.

Under the rules, the DFO is responsible for the preliminary field assessment of a project’s forest clearance application within her jurisdiction. The MoU assigned to the same forest officer the task of handling statutory deductions and recoveries, maintaining financial accounts, and submitting utilisation certificates.

According to the MoU’s responsibility matrix, the forest department has the “Execution responsibility” for completion of the work and contractual administration during the defect-liability period.

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The Bihar RCD, meanwhile, retains the principal engineering and procurement functions. It will provide the sanctioned estimate, prepare the bid documents, conduct the entire tendering process and handle the award of work in accordance with applicable rules.

It will also depute an executive engineer, an assistant engineer and a junior engineer to supervise construction, check quality, record measurements and scrutinise bills. Forest field personnel will work alongside them.

RCD’s Engineer-in-chief Rajak did not respond to phone calls and messages seeking comment.

The project covers NH-333 between kilometre 28.340 and kilometre 38.840. Its stated objectives are improved connectivity, road safety and traffic movement. The revised project cost is Rs 51 crore.

Jay Mazoomdaar is an investigative reporter focused on offshore finance, equitable growth, natural resources management and biodiversity conservation. Over two decades, his work has been recognised by the International Press Institute, the Ramnath Goenka Foundation, the Commonwealth Press Union, the Prem Bhatia Memorial Trust, the Asian College of Journalism etc. Expertise and Experience Mazoomdaar’s major investigations include the extirpation of tigers in Sariska, global offshore probes such as Panama Papers, Robert Vadra’s land deals in Rajasthan, India’s dubious forest cover data, Vyapam deaths in Madhya Pradesh, mega projects flouting clearance conditions, Nitin Gadkari’s link to e-rickshaws, India shifting stand on ivory ban to fly in African cheetahs, the loss of indigenous cow breeds, the hydel rush in Arunachal Pradesh, land mafias inside Corbett, the JDY financial inclusion scheme, an iron ore heist in Odisha, highways expansion through the Kanha-Pench landscape etc. ... Read More