Youth Connect

		Love Your Mother Planet By Dr Sabuj Kumar Chaudhuri This October 2009, I went to MUNSIARI (a beautiful high-altitude hill station in Uttarakhand state in India) with my family. This place is simply heaven. You can virtually touch the Himalayan peaks (Peak-Panchachuli). We were very happy, until some locals told a fact about the tourists. When I tried to describe that their place is extremely beautiful, they described to us how it looked like a decade earlier. Though it may look very beautiful to us now, they complained that due to the continued influx of tourists for the last 7-8 years they are experiencing drastic changes in this place. Tourist leave behind plastics, polymer materials, and other bio-nondegradable materials. More and more hotels have been built by felling trees. The population of cars is increasing, new markets are also coming up, and above all, the anthropogenic stress on this ecolologically fragile zone has cumulatively increased in the last decade. They consider it is the sole fact that has caused immense damage to this area. And they do not want tourists any more in this area. We the people from the plains think that our visits may have helped them economically. But, we are wrong; at least these people have proved so. I salute them. I salute their awareness and love for the nature.

Tell us about a story of care and concern for the climate in your own words, pictures or videos. This could be an initiative taken by individuals or groups in your community or neighbourhood that has an impact on you. Story should focus on adaptation or impact of climate change. Click