Nuapada: The World Environment Day has been celebrated with enthusiasm and excitement in collaboration with the Department of Forests, Environment and Climate Change, Government of Odisha and with the support of the Nuapada District Administration. This year the theme of World Environment Day was “For Nature, For Climate, For Our Future” and a huge awareness cyclothon was organized in the morning from the Collectorate premises to the Central School. Later, trees were planted in the central school premises under the ‘Ek Ped Ma’ Ke Naam’ campaign. Attending the district level meeting held at the central school as the chief guest, Nuapada MLA Jay Dholakia said that development and environmental protection are complementary. He called for an emphasis on relocating and preserving as many trees as possible during development work. District Magistrate Madhusudan Das said, “If trees survive, we survive. Protecting nature means protecting our future. Planting trees and nature conservation is the most effective way to combat climate change, extreme heat, storms and other natural calamities. Let’s all come together to plant trees, save trees and build a healthy environment for future generations.” M. Aziz Khan, Sunabeda Sanctuary Bankhand Officer Sameer Kumar Sahu, District Legal Services Authority Secretary Navnita Das, Chief Development Officer Lambodar Dharua, SRPF Second Commandant Eric Gilbert Jose, 19th Battalion Commandant Deepak Mani Tripathi, officers of various departments, students and media representatives were present. Gayatri Panda, Ghanshyam Karaman, Naresh Meher and Kshirod Bandichor were awarded ‘Friends of Nature’ for their outstanding contribution in the field of environmental protection in the program, chairperson of Khadial Degree Women’s College. Liza Acharya was conferred with the ‘Prakriti Mitra’ award and the ‘Prakriti Village’ award was given to the village of Abhishivita. On the occasion of the one year anniversary of the campaign against single use plastic, Mr. Das said that the ‘Single Use Plastic Free New Pada’ campaign has achieved significant success in the last one year due to the active cooperation and participation of the public. He called for making Nuapada an ideal eco-friendly district in the country and globally by strengthening this mass movement. After the program, Nupada Notified Area Council planted trees in front of Adarsh School in Ward No-1 Shanthora. The concept of creating a green, clean and eco-friendly new pada was further strengthened through the planting of various species of saplings.
Biswanath Samal’s report from Nuapada, Fast News Odisha