Envt dept staff to use fuel-efficientvehicles to reach office once a week

Patna: Officials and employees of the department of environment, forest and climate change will soon come to offices on vehicles running on non-petroleum fuels (petrol and diesel), like electric vehicles or evening bicycles for at least once a week in a bid to conserve climate.An announcement in this regard was made by secretary (environment, forest and climate change) Bandana Preyashi on Tuesday. She was addressing a capacity building programme on climate change organised by Bihar State Pollution Control Board (BSPCB) in collaboration with WRI India and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

“The impact of climate change is on our face and all of us have to make efforts level for climate conservation. We, at the department of environment forest and climate change, have decided to use only fuel-efficient vehicles for coming to office once a week and discard the petrol and diesel-operated vehicles on that day. The officials and staff will come either on e-rickshaws, electric vehicles, bicycles, tricycle-rickshaw or simply on foot,” Preyashi said, adding she was hopeful that other departments of the state government will also follow the practice.BSPCB chairman D K Shukla mentioned the use of scientific data and climatic models to understand evidence-based future projections, climate impacts and disseminate information to key stakeholders. He also shed light on the importance of reducing food loss and waste, and incorporating lifestyle changes.S Chandrasekar, member-secretary, BSPCB, apprised the audience about the initiatives that the state is taking for climate change mitigation and adaptation, including the efforts being made to develop climate resilient and low carbon development pathways for Bihar.Ulka Kelkar, director of the climate programme at WRI India, set the context by discussing the work done by WRI India in Bihar and highlighted the need for nature-based solutions.Experts said the annual maximum and minimum temperatures are increasing in Bihar along with reduction in winter rainfall as per long term data.
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