CHENNAI: The Initiative for Moral Cultural Training Foundation (ICMTF), the Hindu Spiritual and Services Foundation (HSSF), on Sunday morning, held a ‘Prakruti Vandanam’ a symbolic Hindu-religious act of showing gratitude towards nature and to call it for protecting us.
The word Prakruti means nature and Vandanam means praise. Many across the country did a symbolic act called the Vruksha Vandanam and Naaga Vandanam, which is a gesture Hindus do to revere trees and snake gods. The vandanam was done by many in their own houses at 10 am on Sunday.
“The ill effects of this lifestyle and the horrors it has resulted in are now visible. If it goes on like this, then we will not exist a nymore, ” said RSS Sarsanghchalak Mohan Bhagwat, speaking at an online broadcast by HSSF in view of the event. He added that we must learn to embrace nature.
“Man has started to rethink now and feels the need to protect the environment,” he said. Attendees were also asked to take a pledge to “conserve the forests housing wildlife and the wildlife protecting forests,” according to a statement issued by the organisers.
The two balance each other in nature. “In 1990 India had 40 per cent of Forest coverage and a tiger population of 44,000. Ten years later, the forest coverage area fell to 19 per cent and tiger population was down to 1,400,” the statement said, adding that the decline of the forest and wildlife go hand in hand.