Chandigarh: On World Environment Day, Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has urged the people of the state to take a pledge to conserve the environment and maintain ecological balance.
“On World Environment Day, let’s take a pledge to make our contribution towards conserving the environment, Khattar said in a tweet.
Stressing upon the need to maintain ecological balance, in another tweet, he said, Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed.”
Earlier in a message to mark World Environment Day, the chief minister laid emphasis on water conservation.
Keeping this in mind, the Haryana Government has recently started the ‘Mera Pani Meri Virasat’ scheme so that water can be saved for future generations, he said.
He said that climate change has become another global issue today.
Due to climate change, our seasons are changing, the temperature is increasing and the groundwater level is falling. Due to changes in the trend of monsoon, natural disasters like floods, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other cyclonic storms are becoming very frequent. Interference with nature will lead to shortage of clean water and air, he said in the message.
Meanwhile, Congress MLA from Mullana constituency in Ambala district Varun Chaudhary said that the Haryana government has set a target of achieving 20 per cent forest cover in the coming years from present nearly 3.90 per cent, but it should not limit itself to plantation drives but concentrate on survival rates of the plants.
The state government should not only limit itself to plantation drives but concentrate on the survival rates especially during the first year, and promote multiple varieties of trees for plantation including native tree species as these have better environmental impacts, Chaudhary said.
He offered unconditional support to the government to achieve the target and suggested to involve all 90 MLAs of the state for this noble cause.
Increasing the forest cover is a great first step,” he said, adding but we need to think about the environment holistically including our water and air quality, solid waste management, biodiversity and land degradation.