Noted environmentalist Kaushal Kishore Jaiswal, while carrying out one of his green expeditions, came across the grim situation in the State of Uttarakhand, also known as Devbhoomi, which is a major pilgrimage destination in the country.
He witnessed relentless cutting down of trees in the name of development there. This led him to acknowledge the inevitable threat to the Himalayas if this situation prevails. He decided to urge the Central Government to take progressive steps in this direction.
“The inquiry about this matter, regarding environmental degradation, will be done by Prakash Javedkar, Central Minister of Forest Department,” said Kaushal Kishore Jaiswal.
Kaushal Kishore Jaiswal is known for his green campaigns namely ‘Paryawaran Dharma’ or ‘Environment Religion’ and the Van Rakhi Movement.
Like every year, this year too, he started his green voyage from the State of Gujarat till Meghalaya and spread the green message. A total of two lakh plants were distributed and planted by him free of cost all over these 10 States. In addition to this, he also carried out his famous Van Rakhi Movement in which people tied rakhis to tress and swore to protect them. Discussion on environmental issues and related topics were made a part of this event.
The beginning of this event was marked from Yamunotri-Gangotri, Kedarnath andBadrinath as well as other holy places on 14 June. It started by tying rakhis to trees in these areas.
In the meantime, Jaiswal noticed that many trees were cut in the Rudraprayag district. He also observed fancy wire boundaries meant for plantation at various places in Gharwal, Uttkarakhand. But to his dismay these boundaries were bereft of any kind of plantation.He inferred that in the name of development, the people and the administration are not putting much heed to the environment and are relentlessly cutting down trees.
He dictated an incident of the year 2009. A woman had entered Jim Corbett National Park in order to collect some wood. While doing so she was killed by a lion. The government had announced that lion as a threat to mankind and had ordered for its killing.
Kaushal Kishore opposed this decision and said that a lion should be granted as a threat to mankind if it enters a village and kills. The government listened to his appeal and ordered to catch the lion alive and place it in a zoo.
Deforestation in these areas as well as no plantation in gabions are the issues into which there will be a detailed investigation in Uttarakhand.
Kuashal Kishore Jaiswal said that deforestation is threatening the life of the Himalayas. People from all over the world come to visit the Himalayas and also to visit the most celebrated Char Dham in the country. Thus, every person must be responsible towards environment and for doing so one must adopt the 8 basic mantras of environmental religion.
The eight guidelines are planting a sapling on ones birthday, save people, water, forest, land, animals, birds and nature, then only we can save the next generation from water and oxygen crisis.
If one does not imbibe these guidelines, then the day when nature plays a major havoc in our lives is not far away. One of the best examples of this is the tsunami that had occurred in Uttarakhand.
In the inauguration ceremony of Char Dham and Environmental Religion, Poonam Jaiswal, Principal Secretary of the Institute of Environmental Religion, Chief of Dali Gram Panchayat of Chhatarpur block of Palamu district, Amit Kumar Jaiswal Madam of Karnataka,Anju Agarwal, M.Sitapatya of Andhra Pradesh, Subhadra Devi of Tamil Nadu, Rishi Kumari, B NirmalaManjula, Suresh Prasad of Vani L Publications, Delhi, Dharam Pal of Rajasthan, Bamak Kumar of Haryana, VN Srivastava of Ranchi and Sunita Shrivastav were present.