Do You Know the Greenest Minister of India?

FDT Bureau

FDT #newscatchup - As India is preparing for the first meeting of the Environment, Climate & Sustainability Working Group (ECSWG) under the Sherpa Track of G20 will be held in Bengaluru from February 9-11, according to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), it is time when FDT Magazine (Furniture Design & Technology) wants to take the attention of readers to Green and Sustainability solutions.

In this context, the mention of the Greenest Minister of India seems obvious. In a recent communication with media, Former Chief Minister and Sikkim Democratic Front (SDF) president Pawan Chamling said that the idea of making Sikkim a fully organic farming state came as a response to his increasing awareness about the deteriorating condition of nature and our environment.  

"I was born into a different world in the sense that our lifestyle used to be more nature-friendly. But as I grew up, the world began to look different and all the unwanted changes were due to human activities. When I became Chief Minister of Sikkim, I wanted to use my office to give back to nature and planet earth as much as we could by way of the adaptation of green policies," he said.

The SDF President said that his conviction on sustainable development and the green economy has increasingly been augmented as he had seen how these steps helped Sikkim become a model state. "We started massive afforestation programs. Our innovative and pioneering programs such as Ten Minutes to Earth, Smriti Van, Mit with Tree (Ceremonial friendship with tree as per old tradition), Tree Adoption and Heritage Tree became Sikkim’s major activities. We also brought about a revolution in establishing clean industries. Sikkim became the only state to have recorded a 4 percent increase in forest cover from 43.95% in 1993 to 47.62 percent in 2017.

"I was voted the “Greenest Chief Minister of India” in 1999 by the Centre for Science and the Environment (CSE) – a record that remains unbroken to this day.", he further said. He said that he knew that Sikkim needed to show the world that the state can do much more for the conservation of planet earth than what was being done. Organic farming was one such mission that he knew could make a massive change in how we live. He said he raised the matter concerning organic farming in National Development Council meetings from 1996 to 2002, hoping that a national policy would be framed. 

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Source: India Today NE 

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