Tamil Nadu - Udhagamandalam   

Climate champions meeting begins

Photo: M. Sathyamoorthy

The Nilgiris Collector Anandrao V. Patil meeting climate champions in Coonoor on Sunday. –

Udhagamandalam: Beating of drums and a prayer by members of the Toda tribal community marked the beginning of a week-long International Climate Champions Field Camp organised by the British Council in association with the Nilgiri Documentation Centre (NDC) at Coonoor on Sunday.

Inaugurating the camp, the Nilgiris Collector Anandrao V.Patil said a vast area of the district was under tree cover and the district and its surrounding areas were home to about 10,000 elephants and around 280 tigers.

The people of the district are forced to make many sacrifices to ensure that the ecology remained unique and unaffected and it continued to play a crucial role in checking carbon emission so that people in other districts and states benefit,he opined that they deserve to be suitably compensated.

The people who were protecting the environment were paying a price, he said. “Somehow a balance should be struck” he said and added: “Nilgiris doesn’t belong just to Tamil Nadu or India. It belongs to the world.” He referred to the different ways in which the people here suffered on account of a natural calamity in the form of floods and landslips which occurred recently.

The Director Programmes, British Council, Charlie Walker said that in a bid to bring about a low carbon future the Council was working with young leaders. The climate champions network now covered about 60 countries, he said. It will expand and continue to break barriers.

Individuals can make interventions at community levels, he said and added that the Council was for fostering valuable partnerships.

He also referred to the important place occupied by the Nilgiris in the long Indo-UK relationship. A ‘Nilgiri Declaration’ will mark the conclusion of the camp.

The Director, NDC, Dharmalingam Venugopal, welcomed the gathering. The Head Environment, Science and Technology, British Council, Guru Gujral proposed a vote of thanks.

A climate champion, Colin B. Houston of Scotland, expressed the confidence that such meetings can make a difference. Amy of Canada said that environment and economy can be balanced. Ayan Sengupta of Bengal felt that the attention of the people around the Globe should be drawn to local problems.

Among the participants were green campaigner B.J. Krishnan and the National Secretary, Salvation Army K.C.David.

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