Doon Varsity celebrates World Environment Day
By OUR STAFF REPORTER
DEHRADUN, 5 Jun: Doon University joined hands with the ‘Society for Science of Climate Change and Sustainable Environment’, New Delhi, to celebrate World Environment Day, here, today.
Governor Baby Rani Maruya extended best wishes to all, and called for concerted efforts to protect the environment, conserve biological diversity vis-à-vis human sustenance with the slogan `nurture nature for the future’, and urged all the citizens of the state to remain safe during the pandemic.
The Governor highlighted that the Pancha Bhoota, the five great elements earth, water, fire, wind and ether, are the basis of all cosmic creation and form the hub and spokes of human life on planet earth. Therefore, it was necessary to keep all these elements in pristine conditions in order to sustain human life on this planet. The geologically vulnerable Himalayan state, Uttarakhand, has always been the lighthouse of the environmental revolution, right from the days of the Chipko Movement. There has been closer bond between the local communities and biodiversity that has given forth traditional knowledge systems about environmental conservation. She was happy mentioning that, these days, there is a growing awareness amongst citizens to keep the environment green and clean. Government schemes such as Swacch Bharat and Namami Gange were examples of this. She also called on the younger generation to promote eco-tourism in the State, bring about social change, and promote the principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle for better management of the environment.
Expressing concern about the Covid-19 pandemic, she also considered the recent return of low-income migrants to the state as an opportunity for development of mountain agriculture per se. She recalled the contributions of noted citizens of the state including Sunderlal Bahuguna, Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Dr Anil Joshi in this regard.
Professor AK Karnatak, Vice Chancellor, Doon University, said that nature on its own had rejuvenated during the lockdown. It showed how much nature had been ruined. So, it was time to build a better relationship with nature. He underlined that importance of environmental conservation and called for a green economy, and affirmed that Doon University could be the think tank for environmental affairs in Uttarakhand.
Prof RP Singh of BBA (Central) University, Lucknow, in his special address gave an account of various areas of subjectivity while addressing the environmental protection and conservation. He described the nexus between food-agriculture-water and suggested eco-friendly approaches for modern-day development.
Dr Nisha Mendiratta from Department of Science and Technology, Govt of India, talked about various National Missions on Climate Change that DST is supporting. She highlighted how Doon University with various other institutions is also actively participating in the National Mission.
Dr Ram Boojh, former National Coordinator, UNESCO (India), delivered the keynote address on Sustainable Environment, and spoke about the ecological, social and economic systems interacting with each other in a given ecosystem, be it natural forests or man-made agriculture systems, which bestow environmental ethics. He further called for scientific validation of the traditional ecological knowledge that can strike a balance between environment and development.
Prof Kusum Arunachalam, while moderating the session, added that environmental education would shape the future of a sustainable world. She also declared the results of the student activities including Poster competition, photography, video making and creative writing. A total of 171 entries from 25 different institutions were received. Partha Sarathi Mondal from WII got the 1st prize in photography; Anuj Joshi from SGRR PG College, Dehradun, won 1st prize in Poster Competition; Uparna Chatterjee from Doon University got the 1st prize in Creative Writing; while Aastha Joshi took 1st prize in Slogan Writing.
