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Wildlife & Biodiversity

Rare white deer spotted in Assam’s Kaziranga National Park

GUWAHATI, June 16: Spotting of a rare white hog deer in Kaziranga National Park has created widespread interest among wildlife conservationists and nature lovers with many flocking to the world heritage site to catch a glimpse of the animal.

After spotting the deer, locals had informed nature photographer Jayanta Kumar Sarma who managed to capture the white deer on his camera in the Burapahar Range of the park. Sarma spotted the animal at a grassland near the 12 line area of Amguri Tea Estate under the Kaliabor Sub-division in Nagaon district on Monday.

Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Kaziranga National Park (KNP) Ramesh Gogoi said that this particular white deer was seen for the first time in the park a few days ago, and it sometimes comes out of the park and wanders with other brown deer to feed on grass, he said. The white colour of the deer is a purely genetic matter, caused due to mutation of the gene, and it is not a different species of the deer family, the DFO said.
Chandan Kumar Duworah, a science journalist from Golaghat said, this white deer is not representing a different species or sub-species. It is result of albumin and its future siblings unlikely to inherete this colour. Although animals do manufacture their own melanin, they can’t make many other pigments. … Another factor is the ability of the bird to metabolize carotenoid pigments to create plumage pigmentation of a different color than the ingested pigment. Many wild animals have variations in colors. In white-tailed deer, melanism – as the coloration is known – is a recessive genetic trait that can be inherited,he said. It causes an excess of dark pigment, believed to be due to mutations in the melanicortin 1 receptor gene (MC1R). Out of the total 40,000 hog deer in Kaziranga, one or two such kinds of uncommon white hog deer can be found, Gogoi added. The park is thronged by domestic and international tourists in large numbers for its famed one-horned rhinos.

Environment

Modi govt’s ethanol blending plan aims to get Rs 41,000 cr investment, lower oil import bill
When ethanol — which is made from molasses, grains, etc — is mixed into petrol, it results in a fuel that is believed to be as efficient but less harmful to the environment.

by SAMYAK PANDEY

New Delhi: The central government is expecting investments of up to Rs 41,000 crore to help India achieve its ethanol blending target of 10 per cent by 2022 and 20 per cent by 2025.

This investment is likely to arrive as capacity addition for ethanol-producing distilleries in addition to building new ones, Union Food Secretary Sudhanshu Pandey said Tuesday as he addressed a press conference regarding the progress of the government’s Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP), and the road map for it.

When ethanol — which is made from molasses, grains, etc — is mixed into petrol, it results in a fuel that is believed to be as efficient but less deleterious to the environment.

Ethanol blending in petrol is a critical part of the Modi government’s plans to cut India’s oil import bill and shrink its carbon footprint in pursuit of its battle against climate change.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi advanced India’s targeted transition to 20 per cent ethanol blending by five years, to 2025 from 2030, with an aim to begin the rollout of this fuel — “E20” — by 2023.

At the press conference, Pandey detailed the government’s plans to set aside surplus food products like sugarcane towards the goal of increasing ethanol production, while also highlighting how it will usher in new employment opportunities, primarily in rural areas, besides strengthening the agricultural economy.

“EBP will a bring positive impact on the country’s economy, along with promoting ethanol as an indigenous non-polluting and virtually inexhaustible fuel. This reduces carbon monoxide emission by 30-50 per cent and hydrocarbon by 20 per cent,” he said.

“The production of fuel-grade ethanol and its supply to oil companies has increased by 5 times from 2013-14 to 2018-19. In 2018-19, ethanol production touched 189 crore litres, thereby achieving 5 per cent blending. The ethanol supply in the current year 2020-21 is more than 300 crore litres, contributing 8-8.5 per cent blending levels. We would be achieving a 10 per cent blending target by 2022,” he added.

So far, India has drawn EBP-related investment to the tune of Rs 7,000 crore, he said, adding that India has plans to boost ethanol production by 1,600 crore litres in the coming times.

Wildlife & Biodiversity

Indonesia has announced sightings of two Javan rhino calves this year in Ujung Kulon National Park, the last place on Earth where the critically endangered species is found.
The new additions bring the estimated population of the species to 73; conservationists have recorded at least one new calf a year joining the population since 2012.
Despite the stable population growth, the rhinos remain under the looming threat of disease, natural disaster, and a resurgence in encroachment.
JAKARTA — Conservation officials in Indonesia have reported a sighting of two new Javan rhinoceros calves, boosting hopes for stable population growth of the nearly extinct species.

The calves, a female and a male, were spotted on different occasions in March by camera traps in Ujung Kulon National Park on the western tip of Indonesia’s Java Island, the Javan rhino’s (Rhinoceros sondaicus) last habitat on Earth.

The addition of the two calves brings the species’ total population to 73 individuals, comprising 40 males and 33 females. There has been at least one newborn Javan rhino calf recorded every year since 2012, according to the International Rhino Foundation (IRF).

“The steady natural birth of the Javan rhinoceros in Ujung Kulon National Park indicates the success of the full protection policy implemented across its habitat in the park,” the Indonesian environment ministry said in a statement issued June 12.

The ministry added that the female calf, estimated to be 3-5 months old, appeared to be the second offspring of a rhino known as Ambu, who was known to have first given birth in 2017. The male calf, estimated to be 1 year old, was seen with his mother, whom conservationists have named Palasari.

A Javan rhino calf spotted on camera trap in Ujung Kulon National Park on March 27, 2021. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry.

A Javan rhino calf spotted on camera trap in Ujung Kulon National Park on May 16, 2021. Image courtesy of the Indonesian Ministry of Environment and Forestry.
The species once ranged north through mainland Southeast Asia, as far as eastern India. But its population was hammered by poaching and human encroachment into its habitat. The Javan rhino’s last safe haven is Ujung Kulon, where strict protection has meant there have been no reported poaching attempts in more than 20 years. This is thanks largely thanks to the work of patrol teams known as rhino protection units.

However, rhino experts have highlighted other threats to the habitat, such as illegal fishing and lobster trapping in the protected waters of the park. The Indonesian government in May 2020 resumed the catching of lobster larvae from the wild for export, effectively opening up the shores of Ujung Kulon to fishers.

Ujung Kulon also sits in the shadow of Anak Krakatau, the active volcano left over from the historic eruption of 1883. In December 2018, a massive eruption tore off part of the slope and sent it sliding into the sea. This generated a tsunami that hit Ujung Kulon and nearby areas, killing more than 400 people, including two park officials. The rhinos were far inland and unharmed during the incident.

But the prospect of a single catastrophic event wiping out the last remaining population of the species, whether a tsunami or a disease outbreak from neighboring livestock herds, has led to calls for finding another suitable habitat in which to establish a new Javan rhino population. While these plans have been discussed for years, no alternative site has been chosen, with the Indonesian government instead opted to expand the usable habitat within Ujung Kulon.

A decade ago, the Javan rhino population was estimated at fewer than 50 individuals. The last of the species outside Java were believed to occur in Vietnam, but were declared extinct there in 2010 due to poaching.

Human Rights, Indigenous People

May 28 order has no relation whatsoever with CAA: Ministry of Home Affairs to Supreme Court

The 2019 Act, better known by its abbreviation ‘CAA’, is under challenge before the Supreme Court.
The Ministry of Home Affairs maintained in the Supreme Court on Monday that its May 28 order delegating power to District Collectors in 13 districts across five States to grant citizenship to non-Muslims from neighbouring Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh has “no relation whatsoever” with the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019.

The 2019 Act, better known by its abbreviation ‘CAA’, is under challenge before the Supreme Court. The law is accused of “fast-tracking” citizenship for non-Muslim persecuted minorities — Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Parsi and Christian — from India’s three neighbours. The CAA is blamed of illegally granting citizenship on the basis of religion.

Also read: Union Home Ministry order inviting citizenship applications faces Supreme Court challenge

Petitions in the Supreme Court have drawn parallels between the CAA and the May 28 notification, which facilitates non-Muslims from the three countries residing in 13 districts of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Haryana and Punjab to apply for citizenship.

Indian Union Muslim League party, represented by advocate Haris Beeran, said the May 28 order was a deliberate ploy to implement CAA’s “malafide designs”.

In its response, the MHA countered that the May order “merely delegates the power of (granting citizenship by registration and naturalisation) to the local authorities in particular cases”.

“The Central Government used its authority under Section 16 of the Citizenship Act… It is merely a process of decentralisation of decision-making aimed at speedy disposal of the citizenship applications of such foreigners… It has no relation whatsoever to the CAA,” the MHA affidavit said.

But Mr. Beeran expressed his doubts, saying “if it has no relation to CAA, where does the May 28 notification draw authority from to specify the same communities for the same three countries for facilitating the citizenship process”.

The government reasoned that the notification did not “provide for any relaxations to the foreigners and applies only to foreigners who have entered the country legally”. The applicants should possess valid documents like passports and Indian visa.

“Any foreigner of any faith can apply for citizenship of India at any time,” the MHA affidavit said.

The government however said the May 28 notification was only one among numerous such orders passed in the past to meet “administrative exigencies”. The Centre said it had similarly delegated powers to District Collectors of 16 districts and Home Secretaries of seven States in 2016. Following this, the Centre had received “several representations” to extend the delegatory powers to more districts and States. The May 28 order was the result.

The May 2021 order extends the power to District Collectors of Morbi, Rajkot, Patan and Vadodara in Gujarat, Jalore, Udaipur, Pali, Barmer and Sirohi in Rajasthan, Durg and Balodabazar in Chhattisgarh, Faridabad in Haryana and Jalandhar in Punjab and to Home Secretaries of two more States, i.e., Haryana and Punjab.

“Now District Collectors of 29 districts and Home Secretaries of nine States will exercise powers of Central Government to grant citizenship to the specified category of foreigners. The Central Government has also retained its right to simultaneously use these powers any time,” the affidavit noted.

Obituary

The first Indian who first initiated to conserve Siachen glacier Col (retd) Dilip Kumar Duarah breathed his last yesterday at the 151 Base Hospital, Basistha due to cardiac arrest. He was 67 and terminally ill for sometime.He was the first Assamese with first Indian team who climbed Karakoram Himalayas and reached Siachen.

Born at Golaghat in 1953, to Charubala Duarah and Harendranath Duarah, he had his primary education at Doigrung and later joined Goalpara Sainik School. He then joined the National Defence Academy. A skilful gymnast in his

school and Academy days, he was also a tough mountaineer trained under Tenzing Norgay in the Himalayan Institute of Mountaineering.
After passing out from the Indian Military Academy he joined Indian Army and posted as a mountain warfare instuctor in the High Altitude Warfare School, Gulmarg. He had taken part in many expeditions to the then virgin Siachin Glacier in early part of Eighties -‘most notably the recoinassance mission under Col.Narendra Bull Kumar in 1981.Based on the reports of this expedition, Indian Army initiated Operation Meghdoot to occupy those icy inhospitable heights in the highest Glacier.
He also extended his service in the Indian peacekeeping mission to Sri Lanka.
He leaves behind two children and a host of relatives.

Wildlife & Biodiversity

China’s wandering elephants become international stars

image: Wild Asian elephants lie on the ground and rest in Jinning district of Kunming, Yunnan province, China June 7, 2021. A herd of 15 wild elephants has trekked hundreds of kilometres after leaving their forest habitat in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, according to local media. Picture taken June 7, 2021 with a drone. | Photo Credit: CHINA DAILY VIA REUTERS.

by AP

Major global media are chronicling the herd’s more than yearlong, 500-kilometre trek from their home in a wildlife reserve in mountainous southwest Yunnan province to the outskirts of the provincial capital of Kunming.

Twitter and YouTube are full of clips of their various antics, particularly those of two calves who slipped into an irrigation ditch and had to be helped out by older members of the group.

“We should be more like the elephant and be more family oriented, take family vacations and help and care for and protect each other,” read one comment on YouTube signed MrDeterministicchaos.

The elephants have been trending for days on China’s Weibo microblogging service with photos of the group sleeping attracting 25,000 posts and 200 million views Monday night.

Wild Asian elephants lie on the ground and rest in Jinning district of Kunming, Yunnan province, China June 7, 2021. A herd of 15 wild elephants has trekked hundreds of kilometres after leaving their forest habitat in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, according to local media. Picture taken June 7, 2021 with a drone.
Wild Asian elephants lie on the ground and rest in Jinning district of Kunming, Yunnan province, China June 7, 2021. A herd of 15 wild elephants has trekked hundreds of kilometres after leaving their forest habitat in Xishuangbanna National Nature Reserve, according to local media. Picture taken June 7, 2021 with a drone. |

The 15-member herd has been caught at night trotting down urban streets by security cameras, filmed constantly from the air by more than a dozen drones and followed by those seeking to minimise damage and keep both pachyderms and people out of harm’s way.

They’ve raided farms for food and water, visited a car dealership and even showed up at a retirement home, where they poked their trunks into some of the rooms, prompting one elderly man to hide under his bed.

While no animals or people have been hurt, reports put damage to crops at more than $1 million.

Sixteen animals were originally in the group, but the government says two returned home and a baby was born during the walk. The herd is now composed of six female and three male adults, three juveniles and three calves, according to official reports.

What exactly motivated them to make the epic journey remains a mystery, although they appear to be especially attracted to corn, tropical fruit and other crops that are tasty, plentiful and easy to obtain in the lush tropical region that is home to about 300 of the animals. Others have speculated their leader may be simply lost.

Asian elephants are loyal to their home ranges unless there have been disturbances, loss of resources or development, in which case they may move out, according to Nilanga Jayasinghe, manager for Asian species conservation at the World Wildlife Fund.

“In this case, we don’t really know why they left their home range, but do know that there has been significant habitat loss due to agriculture and conversion of forests into plantations within that range in the last few decades,” Jayasinghe wrote in an email. “What possibly happened here is that in their search for new habitat, they got lost along the way and kept going.”

Authorities have been working to avoid negative interactions and “must determine what the best next steps here are and keep human-elephant conflict at bay,” Jayasinghe wrote.

Kunming is to host the upcoming Convention on Biological Diversity’s Convention of Parties to discuss topics such as human-wildlife conflict, and “this is a real-time example of the importance of addressing the issue and its root causes for the benefit of both wildlife and people,” she wrote.

Elephants are given the top level of protection in China, allowing their numbers to steadily increase even as their natural habitat shrinks, and requiring farmers and others to exercise maximum restraint when encountering them. Government orders have told people to stay inside and not to gawk at them or use firecrackers or otherwise attempt to scare them away.

So far, more passive means are being used to keep them out of urban areas, including the parking of trucks and construction equipment to block roads and the use of food drops to lure them away.

As of Tuesday, the herd remained on the outskirts of Kunming, a city of 7 million, with one of the males having moved away on his own, creating even more excitement — and worry — for those attempting to keep tabs on them.

A statement Monday from a provincial command center set up to monitor the group said the elephants appeared to be resting, while more than 410 emergency response personnel and police personnel, scores of vehicles and 14 drones were deployed to monitor them. Area residents were evacuated, temporary traffic control measures implemented, and 2 tons of elephant food put in place.

Another objective was to “maintain silence to create conditions for guiding the elephant group to migrate west and south,” the command center said.

Asian elephants, the continent’s largest land animal, are declining overall, with less than 50,000 left in the wild. Habitat loss and resulting human-wildlife conflict are their biggest threats, along with poaching and population isolation.

Society

Ramachandra Guha: In the lives of three Gandhians, lessons for today’s India – and for the future
lmage: Environmentalist Sunderlal Bahuguna talks to students during a water conservation awareness programme at a school in Chandigarh in 2008. |
Ajay Verma/Reuters Three remarkable Indians died in a single week in May. All were greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi, though each expressed his “Gandhism” in different ways and in different geographical settings. One was in his eighties, the second in his nineties, the third had lived for more than one hundred years on this planet. So while we mourn their deaths we must also celebrate their lives.

The first of these Gandhians to go was Sunderlal Bahuguna of Uttarakhand. When the Chipko movement began in the upper Alaknanda valley in 1973, Bahuguna already had several decades of social work behind him. The initial Chipko protests had been led by Chandi Prasad Bhatt, in Bahuguna’s words the “mukhya sanchalak” (chief organiser) of the movement. Inspired by what women and men had done in the district of Chamoli, Bahuguna brought the idea of Chipko to his own home terrain, the valley of the other great branch of the Ganga, the Bhageerathi. Here he organised protests against the felling of green trees, going on long fasts in the forests.

I first met Sunderlalji in Calcutta in 1981. I was just beginning my doctoral research on Chipko, and he had come to the city to talk on this very subject. He was a captivating, compelling speaker, switching between Hindi and English with ease (doubtless he was even more captivating and compelling in his native Garhwali). Two years later, I did a spell of fieldwork in the Badyar valley, interviewing peasant women who had worked with Bahuguna in a major protest he had led there.

Service and activism
In the course of my research I came to admire both Chandi Prasad Bhatt and Sunderlal Bahuguna. Journalists and academics in Delhi were quick to take sides, promoting one or the other as the “real” or “true” leader of Chipko. In truth, both had played vital roles in the movement. Besides, their orientations were different, but complementary. After the protests of the 1970s had led to a rapid decline in commercial felling in Uttarakhand, Bahuguna took the message of Chipko across the Himalaya.

Bhatt, on the other hand, focused on grass-roots reconstruction within Uttarakhand, mobilising women and students in successfully reforesting hillsides made barren by what one Chipko activist described to me as “andhadhun katai”, the reckless felling of trees by contractors in collusion with the forest department.

Both Bahuguna and Bhatt inspired many younger Indians to take to a life of service and activism.

Matching Sunderlal Bahuguna in energy, courage, intelligence and charisma was a Gandhian who died five days after him. This was HS Doreswamy of Karnataka. He was a decade older than Bahuguna, and thus had an even longer record of service. As a student, Doreswamy met Gandhi when the Mahatma came to Nandi Hills for a spell of rest and recuperation in the summer of 1936. Six years later, Doreswamy played a leading part in the Quit India movement in the princely state of Mysore, spending a long time in jail as a consequence.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Doreswamy worked in the Sarvodaya movement, focusing on land redistribution. However, when the Emergency was promulgated in 1975, he abandoned social work for activism, which resulted in his now being jailed by the government of independent India as he had once been jailed by its feudal and colonial predecessor. He was released after a few months, and spent the rest of his life working for a more humane social order in his home state.

I first met Doreswamy in the late 1980s, when I took part in demonstrations led by him against the environmental destruction of the Western Ghats by the military-industrial complex. Already in his seventies, he was an impressive presence; tall, erect, always ready to lead a procession or go on hunger-fast. Like Sunderlalji, he had a special way with the young, his accessibility and sense of humour drawing them closer to him.

My most recent meeting with HS Doreswamy was in March last year. In the intervening decades I had, of course, followed his work closely. He was verily the conscience of Karnataka, fearless in taking on land sharks, mining companies and, not least, corrupt politicians. Through his eighties and nineties he retained his zest and commitment, raising his voice against social and economic injustice, all the while refusing to take any favours from the state.

He never owned a car, preferring to use public transport. The photographer, K Bhagya Prakash, seeing a 91-year-old Gandhian waiting at a Bengaluru bus stop, stopped to take – unnoticed by the man himself – a series of quite wonderful snaps of Doreswamy boarding a bus, these reposted on Twitter after his death.

The Hindutva threat
For all its other achievements, the Gandhian movement in independent India has never paid adequate attention to the threat posed to the Republic by the rise of Hindutva majoritarianism. (Sunderlal Bahuguna himself sailed quite close to these murky waters, associating with the Vishwa Hindu Parishad on occasion.)

In this regard, Doreswamy was a sterling exception. His last campaign, which he undertook at the age of 101, was against the immoral Citizenship (Amendment) Act. Inspired by the exemplary courage shown by students (particularly female students) at Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia in the face of police repression, the centenarian Gandhian decided to make a public statement himself. In March 2020, he placed himself under a shamiana in an open space where, along with thousands of other friends and admirers, I went to meet him and hear him speak.

As The Hindu reported, Doreswamy held the CAA to be grossly discriminatory, “antithetical to the founding principles of our nation”. “The Muslims here chose to be Indians,” he said. “They cannot be asked to prove their citizenship now.” Opposing the regime’s discriminatory policies, observed Doreswamy, “doesn’t make me anti-national. We need to differentiate between the government, the state and the nation.”

Both Sunderlal Bahuguna and HS Doreswamy were activists who were entirely comfortable being in the public eye. They were quite happy to express their thoughts if a microphone were placed before them, and fluently and wittily too. Both were also extremely photogenic. Rather different in character and temperament was a Gandhian who died just after Bahuguna and just before Doreswamy. His name was KM Natarajan. Gentle, self-effacing and hence much less well-known than the other two, he admirably embodied the Gandhian spirit in his own home state, Tamil Nadu.

Natarajanji was more a constructive worker than an activist. Inspired by Gandhi as a student, in 1956-’57, he joined Vinoba Bhave on a long padayatra through Tamil Nadu, promoting the Bhoodan movement. Thereupon he dedicated the rest of his life to rural renewal. He worked on, among other things, the abolition of caste distinctions, the promotion of khadi and of organic agriculture, and the redistribution of land owned by temples to landless labourers.

Among his closest associates in these campaigns were that extraordinary couple, Sankaralingam and Krishnammal Jagannathan, and an American in khadi, Ralph Richard Keithahn.

I first got to know KM Natarajan courtesy the Indian postal service. Back in 1996, I had written a newspaper article on the Gandhian economist, JC Kumarappa, which prompted a most instructive mail from a man in Madurai who had worked closely with Kumarappa himself. Many years later, while researching the life of RR Keithahn, I found Natarajan had known him well too. So I travelled to Madurai to seek his advice.

Over cups of tea in the Sarvodaya office in the Gandhi museum complex, Natarajanji told me many things I did not know about Keithahn’s life. Then he sent me off with introductions to people at the Gandhigram Rural University in Dindigul, who had known Keithahn well too.

Boundless generosity
In the course of our conversations I discovered, to my surprise and joy, that Natarajanji had a keen interest in that decidedly un-Gandhian pursuit, the game of cricket. And his generosity was boundless. After I returned to Bengaluru, I received a steady stream of parcels from him containing original letters written by Keithahn, which he had sourced for me from all over Tamil Nadu. His kindness extended to reading drafts of what I wrote on the subject, with my errors gently pointed out.

As I reflect on these three lives, I see what each of them has to teach those of us who still have time left on this earth.

Bahuguna of Uttarakhand taught us that human beings are not separate from or superior to the natural world, that for our own survival we have to respect the rest of creation.

Doreswamy of Karnataka taught us that discrimination according to caste, class, gender or creed is not just antithetical to the ideals of the Indian Constitution, but to decency and humanity itself. To oppose such discrimination, and non-violently, is the duty of all who claim to have freedom and justice as their ideals.

Natarajan of Tamil Nadu taught us that true self-reliance begins with the individual, working with her family and her community, that local action for rural sustainability is as vital to the future of the planet as international agreements on reducing carbon emissions.
Three lives, each admirable, albeit in different and distinct ways. Yet there was a common thread that bound them. Bahuguna, Doreswamy and Natarajan were deeply rooted in their home districts, their home states, while being keenly interested in India and the world. It was a privilege to have known them all.
Ramachandra Guha’s email address is ramachandraguha@yahoo.in.

Environment

World Environment Day 2021: Messages, wishes, slogans, quotes, WhatsApp and Facebook status to share on this day (image : an art by Nishat Rehman (12),Shantipur, Golaghat)

: Every year on June 5 Wold Environment Day 2021 is celebrated to spread awareness among people to conserve the environment for a healthy and better future. This day was created by United Nations in 1974 to create awareness regarding the need to protect our surroundings.

In a wake to go digitalise, we have forgotten that our mother nature is vulnerable to technologies that are harming the environment. It is essential to save and rebuild the relationship with nature, as the environment is made up of every living and non-living beings. Also known as Eco Day or Environment Day, people on this day, organise various events in schools, colleges and offices. The aim to organise exhibition, conference and events is to encourage people to plant more trees and give tips to save the environment. World Environment Day 2021 theme is “Ecosystem Restoration”, and the global host of this campaign will be Pakistan.

As the special day is around the corner, we have brought you some wishes, quotes and messages that you can send to your family and friends just by sitting and home. Also, you can post these on your WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram status to spread mass awareness.

A very Happy World Environment Day to all my friends. Let us protect our environment to make our planet a happier place to live for generations to come.

Let us celebrate the occasion of World Environment Day by working together to save our planet from everything that harms it. Warm wishes on this day.

Start today to save tomorrow. There should be no tomorrow in taking steps to save the earth.

Wishing you a very Happy World Environment Day. Let us be responsible for our environment.

Also Read National Higher Education Day 2021: Why we celebrate Higher Education Day?..
National Higher Education Day 2021: Why we celebrate Higher Education Day?..
Let us give our coming generations a healthier and happier environment to have a beautiful life… Best wishes on World Environment Day.

World Environment Day will keep reminding us of the wrong we did to our environment and the right we need to do to correct it all.

Earth provides us with everything that we need and therefore, we must take care of it with all our efforts. Wishing a very Happy World Environment Day to all.

Let us make it a memorable World Environment Day for our planet by coming together to make our planet a cleaner and greener home for everyone. Warm wishes on this day to all.

Saving the environment means saving a life. Let’s make the world environment day more successful by taking an oath to protect nature. Happy world environment day!

Let us do our small bit to make the world a cleaner and healthier place… Happy World Environment Day.

Deforestation is changing our climate, harming people and the natural world. We must, and can, reverse this trend.

Save the trees our ancestors planted and plant new ones as a gift to our coming generations…. This is the best way to have a greener environment….. Make World Environment Day more successful by planting more trees!!!

Celebrations of World Environment Day come with a promise to save the environment and the world.

Do not pollute water, land, air, and environment because once it is lost, it is lost forever….. Sending warm wishes on World Environment Day with a promise to take care of our environment.

World Environment Day 2021 Quotes

For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realise that, in order to survive, he must protect it. —Jacques-Yves Cousteau

What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another- Mahatma Gandhi

The Earth is what we all have in common. —Wendell Berry

Pleasure is Nature’s test, her sign of approval. When a man is happy, he is in harmony with himself and his environment.- Oscar Wilde

The Earth will not continue to offer its harvest, except with faithful stewardship. We cannot say we love the land and then take steps to destroy it for use by future generations. —John Paul II

I go to nature to be soothed and healed and to have my senses put in order. —John Burroughs

Away, away, from men and towns To the wildwood and the downs, To the silent wilderness, Where the soul need not repress its music. —Percy Bysshe Shelley

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you. —Frank Lloyd Wright

Water is H2O, hydrogen two parts, oxygen one, but there is also a third thing, that makes it water and nobody knows what that is.- D.H. Lawrence

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children — Native American Proverb

The Earth is a fine place and worth fighting for. —Ernest Hemingway

I believe in God, only I spell it Nature. —Frank Lloyd Wright

Choose only one master—nature. —Rembrandt

The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens. — Baha’U’Llah

Everything in nature invites us constantly to be what we are. — Gretel Ehrlich

Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral. — John Burroughs

World Environment Day 2021 Messages

Taking care of the environment today will promise us a happier tomorrow. Happy World Environment Day.

We must join hands to save our beautiful planet as there is no other place in the universe so beautiful, so vibrant and so lively. Let us be more responsible. Happy World Environment Day.

On the occasion of World Environment Day, let us pledge to work hard in making Earth a greener and healthier place to live. Let us come together to plant more trees and spread greenery.

We must come together to protect and save our planet in order to make it a healthier and happier place to live for our generations to come. Wishing you a Happy World Environment Day.

Mother Nature has always been kind to us and now it is time to return all the favours by showing a responsible attitude towards the environment. Warm wishes on World Environment Day to you.

Let us save the environment for our generations to come. Happy World Environment Day.

If we don’t protect our environment today, we will repent later. A very Happy World Environment Day.

It is our responsibility to keep our surroundings clean and green and we all must make the best of the efforts to do so, to save our Mother Earth and live happily. Happy World Environment Day.

By caring for the environment, you care for yourself and for your coming generations. Let us be more responsible towards our environment to make it a better place. Happy World Environment Day.

Planting more and more trees is one of the best ways to make the world a healthier place to live and save the environment. On World Environment Day 2021, let us pledge to plant more trees.

World Environment Day will keep reminding us of the wrong we did to our environment and the right we need to do to correct it all.

World Environment Day 2021 Slogans

Harmony with the environment is the need of the hour. With discord, we will soon be left with nothing in our hands.

Never blame the environment but always blame yourself for not taking care of the most precious gift God gave us.

What should be our first priority is sadly the last one….. Always keep the environment before everything else!!!

Let us do our small bit to make the world a cleaner and healthier place… Happy World Environment Day.

Celebrations of World Environment Day come with a promise to save the environment and the world.

If you will pollute water, you can never expect to find clean drinking water. Save the environment and save our planet.

The best that we can do for our coming generations is that save the environment for them.

Let us take a pledge to make our environment healthier and greener on World Environment Day.

The onus of saving our environment is on us and World Environment Day is a reminder.

Those who ignore their surroundings will soon have to face the agitation of Mother Nature…. Let us act and take care of our environment.

We claim Nature to be our Mother but we never take the responsibility of caring for Her.

Posted By: Niharika Sanjeeiv. Jagran Lifestyle Desk

Education

Thousands protest in Hungary against planned Chinese university campus

Thousands of Hungarians, some of them holding banners declaring “treason,” protested on Saturday against a Chinese university’s plans to open a campus in Budapest.

Liberal opponents of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban accuse him of cosying up to the Chinese government, and fear the campus could undercut the quality of higher education and help Beijing increase its influence in Hungary and the European Union.

“I do not agree with our country’s strengthening feudal relationship with China,” Patrik, a 22-year-old student who declined to give his full name, told Reuters at the protest in the Hungarian capital.

He said funds should be used “to improve our own universities instead of building a Chinese one.”

The government signed an agreement with Shanghai-based Fudan University in April to build a campus at a site in Budapest where a dormitory village for Hungarian students had previously been planned.

The Fudan campus is planned for construction at this site in Budapest, Hungary, seen on April 23, 2021.
The Fudan campus is planned for construction at this site in Budapest, Hungary, seen on April 23, 2021.
The government has said Fudan is a world-class institution and the campus would “allow students to learn from the best.”

Hungary’s MTI news agency quoted Tamas Schanda, a deputy government minister, as saying Saturday’s protest was unnecessary. He also dismissed “political hysteria” based on unfounded gossip and media reports.

Opposition politicians and economists have criticized what they say will be the high costs of the project and a lack of transparency.

“Fidesz is selling out wholesale the housing of Hungarian students, and their future, just so it can bring the elite university of China’s dictatorship into the country,” the organizers of Saturday’s protest said on Facebook, referring to Orban’s ruling right-wing party.

Budapest’s mayor, Gergely Karacsony, has publicly opposed the plan. As an act of protest, the mayor announced Wednesday that streets near the planned campus would be renamed after prominent human rights causes sensitive to the Chinese government.

One street will be named after the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, while another will be called “Uyghur Martyrs’ Road” after the mainly Muslim ethnic group that Washington and other capitals say has been victim of a Chinese genocide.

Two other streets will be named in honor of Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters and a Catholic bishop who was jailed in China.

Beijing said this week “a few Hungarian politicians” were trying to grab attention and obstruct cooperation between China and Hungary.

“This behavior is contemptible,” said Wang Wenbin, China’s foreign ministry spokesman.

Orban has built cordial ties with China, Russia and other illiberal governments, while locking horns with Western allies by curbing the independence of scientific research, the judiciary and media.

The Hungarian leader was criticized Friday by a senior German diplomat for blocking an EU statement that would have condemned Beijing’s crackdown on civil liberties in Hong Kong.

“Hungary again blocked an EU statement on Hong Kong. Three weeks ago it was on Middle East. Common foreign and security policy cannot work on the basis of a blocking policy,” German Foreign Office State Secretary Miguel Berger wrote on Twitter.

Orban faces a unified opposition at home for the first time since assuming power in 2010 before a parliamentary election due in 2022.