22nd April 2020 was celebrated as the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
Earth Day and its Significance
The concept of Earth Day started back in 1970, to remember and take a step forward towards a modern environmental movement. On 22nd April 1970, 20 million Americans came together on streets to raise a voice against environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet. Since then, every year, this day is celebrated as Earth Day worldwide.
The theme of 50th anniversary of Earth Day, this year is “Climate Action”. This is an enormous challenge yet comes with vast opportunities for action against climate change.
Madhya Pradesh, in the Central province of India, is a state with the maximum forest cover, covering 31% of the entire state and approximately 77,000 square kms. Thus, it has the maximum rate of carbon sinks here, keeping the entire Indian country into account.
A carbon sink is anything that absorbs more carbon than it releases as carbon dioxide. Agreeing with the majority of scientists, natural forests are the best bets to manage climate change. There are some scientific evidences which proves that the managed and even old growth forests sequester carbon at rates of up to 6 ton ha (Lal, 2000).
Pugdundee Safaris Contribution to Mother Earth
Pugdundee Safaris works passionately on a goal driven around eco-tourism, conservation and sustainability. Therefore Earth day is close to our hearts. We are not only in favour of afforestation, but we also believe in taking small, meaningful steps to reduce our carbon footprint.
Carbon footprint is the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organization, or community.
At our lodges, we started an initiative called ‘Go Green‘ where we switched completely from plastic bottles, to using steel ones. Over 1.5 million plastic bottles are not being sent by us to landfills, due to this initiative.
We are also proud to have gone completely ‘Single use plastic free’ since the year 2019. None of our lodges are manicured with the artificial lawns, rather the natural forests cover is allowed to thrive in our premises. We have warm lights in all the lodges which reduces the negative impact on wildlife. Instead of CFL, we use LED which are more energy efficient and long lasting.
These are only some of the meaningful measures we are taking to help preserve our Earth and there are more. We will continue to grow and contribute in this endeavour of helping the Earth recover and heal in our own little ways. Every small step counts, and we will continue to make a difference.
We are eco-lodges and we take personal responsibility for preserving the resources that we are surrounded by and inevitably depend upon, for running our lodges.
Today, on Earth Day the human race must not be intimidated by the enormous threats we are facing due to climate change, but embrace in our lives, small measures that will make a difference and will help the reduce the impact of climate change.
Pugdundee Safaris is proud to be one of India’s responsible, leading safari companies and we promise to keep adding to the energy corpus of Mother Earth with our very best efforts, in the years to come.
Contributed by: Swanand Deshpande and Mugdha Desai, Naturalists, Denwa Back Water Escape, Satpura
Edited by: Natasha Sinha, Content Curator, Pugdundee Safaris
