State plans to rope in Big B for forest initiatives

After roping in Amitabh Bachchan as Maharashtra's tiger ambassador, the state government is planning to involve the superstar to publicise the other initiatives of the state forest department.

Maharashtra finance minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, who is also the state's forest minister, said that they would meet Bachchan on Friday in this regard. He added that they were planning to discuss issues like roping him in for the forest department's initiatives like sale of non-timber forest produce (NTFP), planting 50 crore trees in three years, creation of smruti vans, tree banks and a Green Army and contests in schools to boost public participation.

"We will request Amitabh Bachchan to come to all six divisions like Nagpur, Aurangabad and Pune," said Mungantiwar.

Last year, Bachchan had approved Mungantiwar's request to act as Maharashtra's tiger ambassador.

Maharashtra has six tiger projects, including five in Vidarbha and one in Western Maharashtra (the Sahyadri tiger project). The tiger census, results for which were released in 2014, have said that India has 2,226 tigers, up from 1,706 in 2010. Maharashtra has around 190 such big cats, more than 169 in 2010.