According to the United Nations, ‘the celebration of World Environment Day  on June 5 every year,  provides an opportunity for an enlightened opinion and responsible conduct by individuals, enterprises, and communities in preserving the environment.’

The year 2020 seems to be fraught with continuing environmental crisis! Forest fires in Australia; cyclones and floods – the most recent being the  Amphan cyclone in West Bengal and Assam, India. Now, locust attacks across Africa and India and the coronavirus pandemic — all these calamities are a grim reminder that human well-being and our planet’s health are inextricably linked!

The environmental disasters and millions of species of plants and animals facing extinction, are a warning that we must heed collectively the ways and means to preserve biodiversity – not exploit it mindlessly.  We must fundamentally rethink our relationship with all living beings – including animals, and revere our natural ecosystems. Our daily lives depend on nature’s biodiversity - such as availability of fresh water, food and fuel sources – to name a few, which are a prerequisite for good health and productive livelihoods.  Mahatma Gandhi rightly observed, ''Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's needs, but not every man's greed.''

In our initiative #ChooseNonviolentDefence, our objective is a World Beyond War. War destroys not only precious human lives but nature as well. So, dear Signatories, let us renew our commitment to saving lives and Mother Earth; and live on our planet without wars and destruction – in tune with the theme of World Environment Day 2020:  'Celebrating Biodiversity'!