PrashantNews
Women’s health and the sustainable development remain two big issues in Uttarakhand ever since its inception in the year 2000.
During her two days visit to Uttarakhand, President Droupadi Murmu appeared to have given a piece of advice to the hill state where thousands of trees are being felled in the name of development. She on Wednesday stressed on re-evaluating the norms of the development and said “the destruction of forests in a way is causing destruction of humanity”.
Addressing the convocation ceremony of the professional training course of the Indian Forest Service at the Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy (IGNFA) in Dehradun as the chief guest, the President said “unsustainable exploitation of resources has brought humanity to a point where the norms of development need to be reevaluated”.
She said, ‘it is important to understand that we are not owners of the earth’s resources but actually we are the trustees. Our priorities should be human-centric as well as nature-centric. In fact, only by being nature-centric we will be able to be truly human-centric.’
Murmu expressed concern over the rapid loss of forest resources in many parts of the world and said that destruction of forests is causing destruction of humanity. She called for using science and technology to compensate for the loss. In this regard, she also mentioned the ‘Miyawaki’ method being adopted to compensate for the loss of forests. Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki endowed the Miyawaki technique to create dense forests with native plants.
The President described climate change as a serious challenge facing the world and said that many incidents of extreme weather conditions are coming to the fore. She said that recently the Supreme Court has given the status of fundamental right under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of the right to be free from the adverse effects of climate change. The Forest Academy experts present in the program were asked to make necessary changes in the training program in this regard. She said, ‘I would request them to consider making appropriate amendments in the training curriculum in view of this climate emergency.’
Describing forests as ‘life givers’, the President expressed concern that human society is deliberately making the mistake of forgetting the importance of forests. He said that human life can be saved from danger through conservation and promotion of forests and wildlife. He asked the new forest officers to fulfill the responsibility of conservation, promotion and nutrition of forests with full alertness and devotion.
Citing the example of tribal society, she said that the eternal laws of nature are made the basis of their life, but in the impulse of modernity, some people have considered the tribal community and their store of knowledge as conservative.
In Rishikesh on Tuesday, the President spoke on the women’s health in Uttarakhand. She said the people, especially women, in Uttarakhand are affected by diseases like osteoporosis and anemia due to lack of sunlight and local food habits. “In Uttarakhand, due to lack of sunlight and local food habits, people, especially women, are affected by diseases like osteoporosis and anemia,” she said.
Even in this era of global medicine, researching and solving national, regional and local problems related to medicine should be the priority of institutions like AIIMS Rishikesh, the President had said speaking at the 4th convocation of AIIMS Rishikesh.