Ayush Ministry celebrates two Gujarat events in eco-friendly way

Amid the growing environmental concerns and consciousness among organisations and leaderships across the globe, the eco-friendly measures and arrangements made during two events of the Ministry of Ayush, held in Gujrat recently, inspired sustainable development and a healthy planet.

As per a press release of the Ministry of Ayush, the estimated use of more than 1 lakh plastic bottles, 15,000 plastic tags and 50,000 plastic cutleries was avoided during the events, leading to an estimated reduction of 1,19,437.5 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (Co2e).

Furthermore, countries, organisations and entities across the world are coming together to curb evils such as single-use plastic.

While speaking at the 14th session of the Conference of Parties (CoP-14) to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Single-use plastic is not only harmful to the health of the people, but it is also a major reason for the deterioration of the health of the land."

With the recently concluded events of the Ministry of Ayush in Gujrat highlighted the intent of the Government to lead by example in this direction.

The Prime Minister laid the foundation of the world's first WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine (GCTM) during the ground-breaking ceremony held at Jamnagar on April 19 and inaugurated the 3-day Global Ayush Investment and Innovation Summit (GAIIS) on April 20 in the presence of Prime Minister of Mauritius Pravind Kumar Jugnauth and Director-General of the World Health Organisation Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

"The mega-events echoed the resolve of the country to curb single-use plastic with dedicated efforts to minimize carbon footprints. Both the events were of global prominence that captured the attention of the global community of policymakers, healthcare professionals, investors and stakeholders and were thronged by thousands," the release stated.

The unique eco-friendly practices adopted in organising these two events also garnered praise from diverse communities of stakeholders.

Moreover, as per the Ministry, the GAIIS event featured discussions and exhibitions during the summit and demonstrated environmental consciousness in action by adopting a wide range of measures in organisation of the event.

"Considering single-use plastic including plastic water bottles, plates, cups, neck badges etc. being the key pollutant, reusable cutlery, glass bottles paper tags, paper cups etc. were used during the event," the release stated.

As per the Ministry, eco-friendly practices were adopted to organize the events in line with the thought of the Prime Minister and in order to promote healthy and environment friendly practices, the participants were provided with kits that included copper bottles for drinking water. Water dispensers were installed at convenient locations to complement these efforts.

While talking about the arrangements, the organizers mentioned, "Environmental consciousness remained the core of decision making for the organisation of the event such as avoiding the use of plastic flex banners and other such material with an objective to minimize carbon footprints."

The visitors attending various sessions at the event also complimented the organizers for their efforts and eco-friendly measures. During the event, participating experts and speakers also expressed the potential of Ayush to achieve sustainability and net-zero.

The event also featured creative exhibitions on environment-related issues and solutions. Interestingly, the exhibit on 'Smart and Sustainable Ayush Factories for the Future', showcased steps toward efficient waste disposal for a clean, green, and sustainable future and also demonstrated the way to live without plastic which is commonly taken as unavoidable and most convenient.

D. Pratik Mehta, an environmentalist, mentioned that the Microplastic evil was recently reported in 80 per cent of the human blood samples tested. He also insisted on adopting an approach to living and sustaining without plastic as much as possible.

( With inputs from ANI )