Mumbai: India’s forest cover has increased by one per cent in the last five years and similar progress will be made through people’s participation, Union Minister for the Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar has said. Speaking to media during his maiden visit to Mumbai’s National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) on World Environment Day on Thursday, he asked people to plant and help grow at least 10 trees as part of their contribution to protecting the environment.
Also Read: Water Crisis Returns To Haunt Maharashtra’s Latur, As They Get Water Tanker Once In 15 Days
Union Minister Javadekar was on his first official visit to Mumbai after taking charge as minister in the second Modi government. The minister planted three saplings at Gulshan Mahal, the historic building in Films Division that houses a part of NMIC, as part of the celebration of World Environment Day yesterday.
Film personalities Anupam Kher, Jackie Shroff, Shyam Benegal, Kiran Shantaram, Varsha Usgaonkar and others were present on the occasion. The Minister expressed his heartfelt gratitude to all artists for coming together and joining the movement.
Mr. Javadkar also unveiled a people’s campaign #SelfiewithSapling on Environment Day eve, urging everyone to plant a sapling and to post the selfie with the sapling on social media. He interacted with around 100 film personalities, including Shyam Benegal, Subhash Ghai, Ramesh Sippy, Ketan Mehta, Jabbar Patel, Kiran Shantaram, Shilpa Shetty, among others present.
The minister also planted saplings in the premises of Environment Ministry in New Delhi along with the Minister of State in the Environment Ministry Babul Supriyo, renowned cricketer Kapil Dev, Bollywood actors Jackie Shroff and Shri Randeep Hooda and noted singer Malini Awasthi.
Also Read: Projects To Reduce Pollution In River Mula-Mutha Fast-Tracked, Says Union Minister Prakash Javadekar
NDTV – Dettol Banega Swachh India campaign lends support to the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM). Helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan, the campaign aims to spread awareness about hygiene and sanitation, the importance of building toilets and making India open defecation free (ODF) by October 2019, a target set by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, when he launched Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in 2014. Over the years, the campaign has widened its scope to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and menstrual hygiene. The campaign has also focused extensively on marine pollution, clean Ganga Project and rejuvenation of Yamuna, two of India’s major river bodies.
