Kochi's green warrior to be honoured

KOCHI: Despite major 'wars' being fought in the name of environment, the youth of this country are still not learning the science of environment, said M K Prasad, renowned environmentalist and one of the stalwarts behind the famous Save Silent Valley campaign.

One of the reasons behind the successful Silent Valley movement was the non-stop awareness campaign launched by the Kerala Shastra Sahitya Parishad (KSSP). Prasad was one of its key campaigners. "Though the Supreme Court has in its judgment said that environment education should be made a part of school and college curriculums, it is yet to become a mandatory subject in higher secondary schools and colleges. If you want the youth of this country to understand, appreciate and preserve the environment, they need to be taught science and facts."

Prasad, a teacher to many new-generation environmentalists, says that education is key to saving the environment. "When I met Anil Agarwal of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), he introduced me to what he referred to as the 'next generation environmentalists' and called Sunita Narain, Mahesh Rangarajan and Ashish Kothari. They were all in their school or college days," he recalls.

On Wednesday, when the world celebrates the environment day, Prasad will be felicitated by some of the best 'green activists' of the country, some of whom he had interacted with for several decades, including Madhav Gadgil, Bittu Sahgal, Sunita Narain, Dilnavaz Variava, V S Vijayan, P S Easa and P Leelakrishnan at a national seminar organised to honour him for his contribution to nature conservation. The seminar on 'Environment and society: The India challenge' is being organized at Taj Gateway from 9am to 5pm.

A festschrift, a volume of articles and papers by India's eminent environmental leaders and academicians, will be released in his honour. The book, a compilation of writings by 35 environmental experts, including M S Swaminathan, Romulus Whitaker, S K Khanduri and Rajan Gurukkal, will be released by justice V R Krishna Iyer.