On Wednesday, June 21, 2023, as part of World Environment Day 2023, the Environment and Human Health Workshop took place at NRL Auditorium, Division of Environment Science ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute(IARI), New Delhi. The workshop was conducted in collaboration with ICAR-IARI New Delhi, YPARD India, Vishwa Yuvak Kendra (VYK), and MILESTONE. 75 children and youth participated in the event from various parts of Delhi. The workshop started with a painting competition on the theme ‘Environment and Human Health’ and a speech competition for participants on the same theme. This was followed by various dignitaries speaking on their areas of expertise and the environment.
Prof. Dr. S K Sharma, Accredited Media Professional, and Fmr. Dean of Himgiri Zee University, spoke about the importance of trees, the role they play in the conservation of the environment, and lots more. While leading the interactive session, he even took a pledge with the audience members to plant a tree during every birthday of theirs and their family members. Next was Dr. Manoj Shrivastava, Principal Scientist, Environment Science on Good Soil & Human Health, then took the stage, with a very interesting presentation ‘Healthy Soil and Human Health’, where he touched upon topics like the world soil charter, what soil is, how it keeps water clean, microbial diversity, its recreational and therapeutic properties, etc.
Speaking on the environment and its connection to the spread of tubercolosis (TB) was Mr. P S Kumar, Administrative Officer, Delhi TB Association. He brought attention to the fact that the importance of oxygen was understood during COVID with the oxygen crisis that happened, and shed light on various TB-related facts and figures. Mr. Manish Sharma, Founder & President, MILESTONE, also led an interactive session where he spoke about the importance of energy saving, tips to save energy, proper pluse of our resources to save the environment, not wasting food, and how each one of us can play our part in saving the environment. Dr. S Naresh Kumar, Head, Environment Science, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi, spoke on “One Health”, starting with "If trees don't exist, we don't exist." He interacted with the audience and spoke about various tips to save the environment.
The audience then had the chance to interact, ask questions and have doubts cleared based on the queries they had on the topics that were addressed. Dr. Ashish Khandelwal, Country Representative, YPARD India Scientist, Environment Science, spoke on “Pesticides and their fate”, talking about pesticides and their role in environment, following which he delivered the vote of thanks, thanking the dignitaries,Vishwa Yuvak Kendra (VYK), MILESTONE, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), ICAR-IARI, YPARD India, UNEP, participants, and everybody else who played a role in the workshop. He finished with the words " Be the leader not the follower, and be the motivator." The event came to a close with the plantation of a Jamun (Black Plum) sapling just outside the auditorium in the ICAR premises by Dr. S Naresh Kumar.