Eminent Gandhian environmentalist Chandi Prasad Bhatt at Press Club of India !
The globally famed Gandhian environmentalist and recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award including several other national and international recognitions Chandi Prasad Bhatt came to Press Club of India premises on Sunday at the invitation of Press Club of India and spoke at length on the subject : Climate Change and Environmental Challenges in the Himalayan Range.
Despite being an octogenarian, travelled all the way from distant Gopeshwar, Chamoli Garhwal Uttarakhand to attend this important interactive session on PCI’s invitation sharing his experience during his long journey of several decades as a grass root environmentalist having initiated his mobilisation campaign among people on environmental safeguards and preservation Chandi Prasad Bhatt was, primarily inspired by legends like Jai Prakash Narayan n Vinoba Bhave etc who’ d visited Gopeshwar n stayed there for three days in 1946.
Claiming himself to be a modest environmentalist having learnt from village inhabitants and grass root environment related issues, being among village folks for decades, Chandi Prasad Bhatt said he is not an ecological or environment expert or academician but a simple grass root environmentalist having learnt through direct confrontation with ecological challenges and disasters while being in close contact with challenging situations n circumstances having commenced this long journey from Gram Sabha Jasoli.
Speaking at length about his more than six decades of experiences as an environmentalist and his concern on the degrading Himalayan glaciers due to so called unfriendly development in the Himalayan states, especially Uttarakhand – inviting several massive ecological disasters – Chandi Prasad Bhatt shed light on several of these natural calamities in Uttarakhand and in other parts of the country n globe cautioning one and all while playing with the ecology of the Himalayan states under the guise of unfriendly environmental development as the Himalayas contribute 64% population of the globe.
Dwelling on the increasing natural calamities, especially cloud bursts incidents leading to over flooding of rivers, carrying tons of silt along, Chandi Prasad said that the massive silt on unaccounted quantity accompanies the huge flow of Alaknanda, Bhagirathi n Ganges making rivers – prone to heavy deluges in future making people’s existence cumbersome posing direct threat to human civilisation.
Accusing environment related government agencies for always being negligent and apathetic towards adopting safeguards in advance to avoid ecological disasters eminent environmentalist Bhatt said all their appeals and representations to these agencies have gone into the deaf ears with no solution in sight in the near future as well.
Expressing his serious reservation on the frequent chopper flights to Chardham, especially Badrinath and Kedarnath Dhams and the new Ropeway project in the offing from Son Prayag to Kedarnath – Chandi Prasad Bhatt said that these technological advancements are not only intruding in the rights of local businessmen by making them jobless but are also adversely affecting the peaceful environment of Himalayas.
The massive sound pollution of these choppers lead to not only disturbance to the animals living in forests but also lead of collapse of glaciers making our rivers over flooded.
The Press Club of India president Umakant Lakhera and Secretary General Vinay Kumar presented a momento as a mark of respect to Mr. Bhatt.
The interactive session was moderated by PCI president Umakant Lakhera who also posed important questions with regard to environmental degradation in Uttarakhand Himalayas and man made disasters.
