New Delhi: British Broadcaster David Attenborough was awarded the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize by former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Monday, in a virtual event which was also attended by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and leader Rahul Gandhi.
While presenting her speech in the event, Sonia Gandhi called Attenborough as one of "Nature's most staunch conscience keepers" for over half a century.
She said, "Sir David is already well known to us all through his prodigious creativity in educating human kind with brilliant films and books about the natural world."
"He has been the most sensible voice warning us that more than anything else, we are responsible for the accelerating threat to the environment on our planet," she further added.
Indira Gandhi Peace Prize was instituted in the memory of former PM by a trust in her name in 1986, which consists of a monetary award of Rs 25 lakh along with a citation.
"When environment production has become all the more imperative when climate change and continued loss of biodiversity is threatening livelihoods and public health in the life on Earth there would not have been a more appropriate choice for an award in her name then Sir David Attenborough," Gandhi said in her speech.
Dr Manmohan Singh asserted over how David Attenborough became one of the most vocal and effective advocates of environmental protection, raising his voice against the wanton destruction of the natural world in the name of progress.
Dr Singh said, "The veracity of Sir David concerns is evident to anyone who looks at the state of our planet today. How acute the situation is cannot be clearer than from the pandemic that has gripped the earth coincidently almost exactly one century after the great influenza epidemic."
"Climate change, the assault on Oceans, pollution of the atmosphere, junk floating about in space, reduction of forest cover, extinction of life in rivers, reduction of Natural Habitat for any life other than humans, all this is evident to anyone who has eyes to see," said the former Prime Minister.
He also mentioned that during the UPA era, the Government was not just conscious about its duty to accelerate economic development but was also very selective in allowing projects that impacted the wilderness or habitat of wildlife.
"Indeed, we were criticized by Industrial Estate and those who thought we were being too restrictive, but I believe that is a proper balance is not firmly held the results are deleterious and self-defeating," said Manmohan Singh.
While thanking for the award, Attenborough warned that the world is heading towards a major crisis, saying that it is one which has deep roots in the history of humanity.
"We must change our ways and we must do so swiftly and globally. But success will only come if the nations of the world agree to act together and help one another. This will not be easy. We have to change from being nationalists and become internationalists," said Attenborough.
He further added, "Economists know very well that an important factor in maintaining the strength of any financial portfolio is its diversity. Reducing that diversity is a dangerous thing for a financier to do. But that, of course, is what industrialized societies have been doing to the biodiversity of the world for the past 200 years or more."
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