KL NEWS NETWORK
SRINAGAR
The World Environment Week-2015 celebrations which began on June 5 across the State, concluded with an awareness programme held Wednesday at the Forest Information Center at Bikram Chowk, in Jammu.
The Minister for Forests, Environment & Ecology, Bali Bhagat presided over the awareness event, an official statement said this evening.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that conservation of environment and natural resources is a great challenge for every nation and needs a collective approach. He said efforts at the Government level are not sufficient and every individual has to contribute in this noble cause.
Expressing concern over the constant degradation of environment and depleting natural resources in the State, Bali said the State Government has already “launched a vigorous awareness and anti-encroachment campaign across the state”.
“With the result, the Department has successfully retrieved over 3100 kanals of encroached forest land from the possession of illegal occupants,” he added.
He said the drive is “aimed at saving the precious green wealth, which he said has been grabbed by people across the State”. He sought people’s cooperation in the campaign started to “restore and conserve the rich natural resources”.
Appreciating the efforts of the Department of Environment towards the conservation of environment and state’s diverse ecology, the Minister called for launching a massive campaign with the active involvement of educational institutions, NGOs and experts to spread awareness about the practices in day to day life which lead to pollution and degradation of environment.
He said there is a need to sensitize the people about their duty towards conservation of the natural resources. He stressed the need for organizing frequent informative workshops/seminars across the State on the subject to generate awareness among the masses. He said students can be the best ambassadors for disseminating the message of healthy environment and importance of planting more and more trees.
“For this we need to focus and encourage environmental conservation activities in the educational institutions,” said the Minister.
