Gandhinagar: Gujarat government on Tuesday
launched a state-wide campaign to create awareness on climate
change and its impact on environment and human life.
The Gujarat Ecology Commission (GEC) under the state
department of Forests and Environment has been made the nodal
agency for the campaign.
"The idea of the campaign is to educate the masses about
climate change and what they can do at individual level to
reduce its impact," GEC, member secretary, E Balaguruswamy,
told reporters here.
He said climate change represents one of the greatest
environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet
today.
"The primary reason for this is the vast scale ignorance
among people about the adverse impact of their actions on the
ecology resulting in the climate change phenomenon,"
Balaguruswamy said.
He said the state-wide awareness campaign for combating
climate change would involve various stake holders like the
government departments, NGOs, corporates and academicians.
"There will be number of activities like workshops,
seminars, drawing competitions, street plays, photography
competitions, climate change yatras, slogans and wall
paintings," he said.
Balaguruswamy said the government would also be involving
school children in the campaign.
"We would be conducting competitions for drawing, slogan
writing and wall painting on climate change in schools in
various municipal corporations across the state," he said.
GEC has also developed a logo with tagline 'You can beat
the climate change too!'.
It has also come out with a character called 'Jeeva
Bapa', a man dressed in traditional Gujarati attire, which
will be used during the campaign to educate school students
and rural population.
"The name, the attire, the pose he is striking would
immediately establish a connect with the people of Gujarat.
Both rural and urban population will relate to him,"
Balaguruswamy said.
The campaign also aims to bring the pressing issue to the
forefront for discussion, unite different sections of the
society and mobilise industry and business to work cohesively
in mitigating the adverse impact of climate change, he said.
Principal secretary, Environment and Forests, S K Nanda
said climate change has to be taken as a challenge, where
there should be convergence of mitigation and adaptation of
various processes.
Principal chief conservator of forest Pradeep Khanna said
climate change was the talk of the day and to combat it
awareness, participation and contribution are required from
all.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, February 23, 2010, 17:43