Director General of Indian Institute of Mass Communication K G Suresh on Thursday appreciated Greater Kashmir and its sister publication Kashmir Uzma for creating awareness about havocs being caused by the environmental degradation.
Addressing the valedictory function of 2-day long National Media Workshop on Biodiversity, Suresh said, "Both these publications are doing a great work."
Soon after entering into the seminar hall Suresh inquired about the correspondents of Greater Kashmir and Kashmir Uzma. He informed the participants that he had read stories published in GK and Uzma regarding the ecology and hoped that correspondents from other publications would come up with similar stories to preserve biodiversity.
Gita Bamezai, HOD Communication Research IIMC while addressing the participants said, "I hope newspapers will continue to come up with such informative and comprehensive news reports on environment."
Earlier, Prof CR Babu, environmentalist said, "Biodiversity has never been a part of planning at any level from Panchayat to Parliament. India signs international treaties, but not much is done on the ground."
He said, "If flora and fauna were under the threat of extinction so were the humans as they were inter-dependent. Each one of us has to be responsible for preservation of environment around us."
Gopal Krishna of Toxics Watch said that river interlinking was one of the largest projects of the world which would lead to one of the largest environmental disasters of the world.
He was also critical of the monetisation of water by promoting the use of bottled water even in the government offices.
Vibha Varshney from Centre of Science and Environment tried to link climate change with the availability of food and sustenance of life.
More than 20 participants from across the country participated in the workshop. The participants made presentations based on their observations during the field trips and suggested that there should be symbiotic relation between media and the National Biodiversity Authority so that critical issues could be taken up.
