A look at what Kerala will be doing on World Environment Day 2017
Words: Vandana Devi Images: Various Sources
Following the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm, Sweden in 1972, World Environment Day was inaugurated and since its first celebration on 5 June, people around the world take part in thousands of events to raise awareness around the growing concerns of global warming, depletion of ozone layer, deforestation and so on. These events range from simple neighbourhood clean-ups to replanting forests. The host country for this year’s celebration is Canada and they have chosen the theme “Connecting People to Nature” which invites people to enjoy the outdoors and appreciate and protect the environment.
Kerala will also be hosting events and introducing initiatives to celebrate this annual event. Kerala Government will launch a massive tree planting exercise on the day as part of its drive to make the state green. The program is to plant One Crore saplings across the state by involving school students, Kudumbashree units as well as civic bodies.
The program being organised as part of ‘Haritha Keralam’ project, will see the Forest department contributing 72 lakh saplings, Agriculture department contributing 5 lakh saplings and the remaining 23 lakh sapling collected from various agencies like Kudumbashree. Fruit bearing and Medicinal trees will be given priority.
Trees that cause ecological imbalance will also be felled and in its place environment-friendly trees will be planted. ‘Haritha Karalam’ projects wants to make Kerala clean and green through various initiatives including waste management, rejuvenation of ponds, encouraging organic farming and so on. The government also intends to celebrate June as the month of planting.
The Kerala Travel Mart and the Approved and Classified Hotels of Kerala have decided to launch the ‘Refuse the Straw’ campaign on this occasion as well. They will stop providing plastic straws to protect the environment. Straw was one of the top 10 items picked up during beach cleans ups and it also contributes towards the clogging of canals. Abandoning straws is an achievable target and it is very positive to see Kerala’s hospitality industry taking steps in the right direction.
A ‘Sanitation Hartal’ will also be held as part of the World Environment Day celebrations. Health workers, officers of various departments will be engaging in proper waste disposal, mosquito eradication, chlorination of wells and so on. It will conducted in cooperation with the Health Department, Local Self-Government Department, Social Justice Department and the National Health Mission.
“On World Environment Day, let us connect to nature by renewing our pledge to protect wildlife, to make our world greener by planting saplings and to use renewable energy sources.” – Governor of Kerala, P Sathasivam said in his message on the occasion.