Patna, Dec 25 (IANS) The Bihar government will plant 27 lakh bamboo saplings in the flood-prone districts of the state by March next year to protect river embankments from erosion, an official said Friday.

The plantaion work has already begun along the 280-km Gandak project embankment from Valmikinagar to Vaishali district. 'We are aiming to achieve this target by early March next year,' Tirhut division commissioner S.M. Raju told IANS.

He said more than 200,000 bamboo saplings have been planted in the West Champaran and Sheohar districts along the 108-km Gandak project embankment.

Raju said bamboo plantation is the best way to protect embankments during floods.

Lakhs of people have been affected by erosion in Budi Gandak and Bagmati river every year. The erosion also damaged various properties and standing crops.

Raju has successfully linked bamboo sapling plantation with the central government's National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme. 'People engaged for planting bamboo are being paid under the NREGA,' he said.

He hit the headlines in August when he organised 300,000 villagers from over 7,500 villages in Muzaffarpur to engage in a mass tree planting ceremony, an innovative step to increase the green cover.

'More than 60,000 people are looking after 1.2 crore plants every day in the Tirhut division, comprising half-a-dozen districts, and earning wages for it under the NREGA,' Raju said.