SME Times News Bureau | 25 Apr, 2018
Vice
President M. Venkakaih Naidu Wednesday said that Environment
protection and Economic development must go together.
Addressing
the Convocation 2018 of Indira Gandhi National Forest Academy, in
Dehradun, the
Vice President said that fundamental principle of forest management
should be based on conservation and sustainable utilization of
natural resources.
He
further said that we need to employ environment friendly approach and
we must live with nature for better future. It should be the sacred
duty of everyone to plant and protect trees, he added.
The
Vice President said that states must be incentivised for increasing
forest Cover. He further said that Niti Ayog, and the Centre must
have provisions to encouraging states doing well, and top most
priority must be given to the forest, rivers and the Mother Nature.
Tree
plantation and environment protection should become mass movement, he
added.
Naidu
said that the symbiotic association of man and forest is deeply
embedded in the religious and the socio-cultural mind set of our
countrymen and it is getting disturbed in recent times due to
increasing demand of natural resources and lack of understanding
about Mother Nature.
He
further said that the Indian culture has traditionally revered trees
as holy symbols of divinity.
It
was considered as a sin to cut trees like Peepal which is called
‘Ficus Religiosa’, he added.