Honouring Mother Earth: Significance and Experts’ Advice On How To Celebrate World Earth Day This Year

Some of Pune’s renowned environmentalists extended their wishes for this Earth Day.

22 April 2024

By Khushi Maheshwari

World Earth Day is celebrated on 22nd April everywhere. Its aim is to make environmental conservation a mission for everyone and inspire all to educate themselves on and practice sustainability. Another important aspect is that it encourages humans to go back to their roots and reconnect with nature. Only when they reconnect with nature will they respect it. 

This year’s theme for World Earth day is Planet vs. Plastics. It focuses on shedding light on the issue of plastic pollution and how disastrous it is for nature. 

“We as human beings think we are the only beings on the planet and everything is for us. Whereas, it shouldn’t be like that. It should be more in synergy. All beings are equally important. Our organisation helps people understand this and get more connected with nature,” said Hrishikesh Bichu, Founder of a non-profit organisation named The Youth Cosmo.

The Youth Cosmo’s mission really resonates with this year’s theme for Earth Day. For our posterity to learn to preserve and conserve the environment, people need to be educated in a manner so they may feel as one with nature — respecting and taking care of nature should be equivalent to respecting their own home and body. 

Sharmila Deo, Senior Programme Associate at Parisar, one of the most prominent NGOs working towards the cause of the environment, expressed the organisation’s sentiment about Earth Day and said, “For Parisar, every day is an earth day because we believe in sustainability and that is something which needs to be practised by everyone every day.”

Further, she talked about how their team is working on urban sustainability, primarily on issues of transportation. Her advice to everyone was to make it a crucial point and use public transport as much as possible. She laid emphasis on the civic need to demand the relevant authorities to implement an Air Action Plan and to mitigate the causes of air pollution. 

Environment footsoldier Sathya Natarajan, who recently played a pivotal role in cleaning up water hyacinths from the Mula Mutha river, expressed his green wishes and said, “First empathy, then sampathi. Getting people to come on ground & connect with earth is the first step. Celebrate coming together.” 

Ameet Singh, another leading environmentalist, urged everyone to cherish the trees around them and said, “This earth day, let us learn to sit in the shade of giant trees, respect all life forms all around us and care about where our water comes from as well as where it goes.”