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India Celebrates World Environment Day 2019 To #BeatAirPollution

The 46th World Environment Day celebrated on June 5 aimed to focus on the air pollution crisis with its theme #BeatAirPollution. Here's how India, which is one of the most polluted countries in the world, spread the message of beat air pollution.

Padma Shri Awardee Sudarsan Pattnaik Creates Sand Art To Spread The Message Of #BeatAirPollution: Showcasing the ill effects of living in a polluted environment, sand artist Sudarshan Pattnaik, created a sand sculpture on Puri beach in Odisha, with two human faces, one that has turned black due to air pollution and the other depicts a healthy life because of the greenery all around.

Government Launches #SelfieWithSapling Campaign: To promote tree plantation among citizens, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change launched #SelfieWithSapling campaign. As part of the same, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change Prakash Javadkar, planted a sapling at Indira Paryavaran Bhawan in New Delhi. Along with him, Minister of State Babul Supriyo, actors Randeep Hooda and Jackie Shroff, cricketer Kapil Dev and folk singer Malini Awasthi also joined the tree plantation drive.

Importance of Tree Plantation: Did you know, a mature canopy tree absorbs enough carbon and releases enough oxygen to sustain two human beings? So the celebrations to mark World Environment Day saw various ministers and celebrities planting trees. From actor and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Goodwill Ambassador - Dia Mirza, External Affairs Minister - Dr S Jaishankar, Minister of State for External Affairs & Parliamentary Affairs - V Muraleedharan to Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Youth Affairs & Sports and Minister of State for Minority Affairs - Kiren Rijiju, all planted a sapling.

From Gurugram To Mumbai, Clean-Up Drives Mark The Day: Beach warriors organised a clean-up drive at Dadar beach and Bandra beach in Mumbai and Kasavarvadavli lake in Thane. In Gurgurgam, children and officials participated in the clean-up drive organised by the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram. Also, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation launched a five-day Swachh Sabarmati Maha Abhiyan river clean-up campaign involving around 20,000 people.

Mangroves In Versova Get Bio-Fencing, Undergo Clean-up: The mangrove ecosystem serves as a buffer zone that prevents erosion of the shoreline and contaminants from freely flowing into the sea. Mangroves in Versova, Mumbai have suffered from rampant dumping of waste and open burning of garbage. To protect this ecosystem, the state forest department has created bio-fencing, which is essentially a frame with variety of plants on it that is placed in front of the mangroves to prevent any trash from being dumped into it. Alongwith the inauguration of the bio-fence, there was also a clean-up drive that saw beach warrior Afroz Shah, actor Karanvir Bohra, along with other Mumbaikars collect 20 tonnes of plastic from the mangroves.