GUWAHATI: Hyderabad-based environmentalist M Karunakar Reddy received the first “Jadav Payeng International Award” on Sunday.
The award, instituted by Assam’s Jyoti-Protap Education Trust, was conferred on Reddy at a function at Kaliapani in Jorhat district. It carries Rs 2 lakh besides citation and memento.
The environmentalist said he felt honoured to have received the “Nobel Prize of India.” He heaped praise on the “Forest Man of India” Jadav Payeng in whose name the award was instituted.
“He (Payeng) kept planting trees all his life without expecting any award or honour. He did it for his inner satisfaction but it is making the world sustainable. There will be a lot of unsung heroes in the development of a country. Payeng is one,” Reddy said.
Stating that climate change and resultant water crisis is a global problem, he said the solution lied with people. He encouraged everyone to plant trees, not to waste water and reuse it.
“India contributes 20 per cent of the global population but it has only 4 per cent of the world’s resources. We have to properly measure and manage this disparity,” Reddy stressed.
The Jyoti-Protap Education Trust said Reddy pioneered water conservation and management, land restoration and forestation, disaster relief, food security, climate change awareness and action.
“We instituted the award in Jadav Payeng’s name after noting that he is an inspiration for every one of us. M Karunakar Reddy was selected by a 5-member selection committee. He has been working tirelessly for past many years for the conservation of water,” said Protap Saikia, secretary of the trust and founder of the charitable and digitally-smart Jyoti-Pratap Gyanmarg Bidyalay.
Payeng is a green activist who 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, adding that, “I have seen how Reddy is helping people. He rightly deserved this award.”
Payeng’s message to people is “love nature.’