GUWAHATI: Environmentalist M Karunakar Reddy has been selected for the first ever Jadav Payeng International Award.
The award, instituted by Assam’s Jyoti-Protap Education Trust in Jorhat district, carries an amount of Rs 2 lakh besides a citation. It will be conferred on Reddy, who is from Hyderabad, in January next year.
Announcing Reddy’s name for the award in Guwahati on Thursday, the five-member selection committee said he was chosen “for his outstanding environmental stewardship and climate action”.
“Mr Karunakar Reddy has pioneered water conservation and management, land restoration and forestation, disaster relief, food security, climate change awareness and action,” the Jyoti-Protap Education Trust said in a statement.
Environmental activist Rituraj Phukan, a member of the selection committee, said Reddy, who is known as the “Water Man and Green Man” of South India, has been working for water conservation and management for over 15 years now.
“He is also known as the Crisis Man of India for his contributions to disaster relief and management in some of the disaster-prone areas affected by climate change. That’s why, the committee has decided to confer the award on him,” Phukan said.
He was confident that the award would create an impact, for through it, the immense contributions of Payeng, a Padma Shri awardee, was being recognised.
“His (Payeng’s) is the only forest in the world which now houses the Royal Bengal Tiger, one-horned rhinos and Asiatic elephants. All of them came on their own. Nobody transported them,” Phukan added.
Known as the “Forest Man of India”, Payeng has planted and tended trees on a Brahmaputra sandbar, turning it into a forest reserve, straddling 550 hectares, in Jorhat district.
He said he was feeling proud that the award had been instituted in his name during his lifetime. “This will motivate me to work more for the society,” he said.
The Jyoti-Protap Education Trust runs the Jyoti-Pratap Gyanmarg Vidyalaya. Founded by businessman and philanthropist Protap Saikia, the school provides free education. Currently, it has 182 students and classes upto 6. Saikia also built a crematorium, an old age home and an orphanage.
He said by instituting the award, the Jyoti-Protap Education Trust wanted to honour Payeng during his lifetime and motivate people for environmental conservation.