Environment Min urges children to take up leading role in protecting environment, wildlife

Union Minister of State for Environment Mahesh Sharma Monday asked children to play a leading role in the protection of wildlife and the environment while asserting that relationship with the natural world must be based on cooperation.

Sharma said the persistence of children can really be utilised to further the objective of wildlife conservation.

"Urging children to play a leading role in the protection of wildlife and environment, Sharma said that our relationship with the environment must be based on cooperation," an official statement quoted him as saying.

He was addressing a gathering of schoolchildren at the conclusion of Wildlife Week at the National Zoological Park.

Sharma told the children that it is only in India that rivers, forests and animals are worshipped.

Director General of Forests Siddhant Das asserted that no programme can succeed without people's participation while emphasising that though India has only 2.5 per cent of land of the world, it is home to about 18 per cent of wildlife population while adding that tiger, lion, rhinoceros and crocodile are surviving and thriving in the country.

Das also underlined the difference between in-situ conservation, where species are conserved wherever they originate and ex-situ conservation, where animal species are shifted out of the national park to a zoological park for their conservation.

Earlier, Sharma inaugurated a bio-methanation plant, set up in a partnership of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and the Environment Ministry.

The capacity of the bio-methanation plant will be to process three metric tonnes (MT) of organic material per day.

The minister also planted a sapling on the premises of National Zoological Park and also carried out a cleanliness drive under Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan along with the children.

Wildlife Week is celebrated every year from October 2.

(With inputs from agencies.)