Mangalore: World Environment Day Celebrated
By Florine Roche
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
Mangalore, Jun 5: MLA Yogish Bhat inaugurated the World Environment Day – 2009 jointly organized by the Departments of Ecology and Environment and Forest Department of Government of Karnataka in association with Mangalroe Special Economic Zone, at SDM Law College in the city on Friday, June 5.
Venkat Dambekodi, President D K District Zilla Panchayat, Mayor Shankar Bhat, I S N Prasad, Managing Director of MSEZ, T V Mohandas of Forest department, District Commissioner P Ponnuraj, S Shanthappa of the Department of Forests and P Shivashankar of D K Dist Zilla Panchayat, were the chief guests on the occasion.
Inaugurating the environment day Yogish Bhat emphasized the need of having a holistic approach towards protecting our environment and it said it should not be limited it to planting trees alone. There is an increasing awareness on the need to protect the planet earth the world over and everyone one has to contribute in their own way to protect the environment, he stated.
District Commissioner V Ponnuraj asserted that people who talk about environment should have a clear perspective and background on environment. Apart from planting trees we have to contribute our share by using energy efficient forces and by reducing the consumption use of water, electricity etc., in our daily life, emphasized.
T V Mohandas of the Forest Development Corporation urged the Mayor to help the Forest Department in the task of protecting environment by making it compulsory to plant at least 5 trees before issuing license to build houses or apartments. He also said the city will soon be named as Mangalore Green City.
Chief Operating Officer of MSEZ A G Pai talked about the steps taken by MSEZ in its efforts to safeguard the environment. He said MSEZ plans to plant 2 lakh odd trees in he city of which 40,000 trees will be planted this year in the green belt area of the SEZ.
Earlier an exhibition of photographs and plants was inaugurated by MLA Yogish Bhat. Dinesh Nayak Vitla of Sassya Shyamala fame, who is the advisor to the green belt of MSEZ presented a lecture with slide shows on the unique plant diversity of the Western Ghats. The two day exhibition aims at providing knowledge to the people about the richness of our plant diversity.