Votes to be cast to prevent melting of glaciers, save plants, protect Mother Nature: Sonam Wangchuk

Kolkata, Jan 16 (PTI) Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk on Thursday urged people to use their democratic right to vote for environmental issues, stressing that votes should be cast to prevent the melting of glaciers, save plants and protect Mother Nature.

The 58-year-old green crusader, who is the founding-director of the Students' Educational and Cultural Movement of Ladakh, expressed his views during a programme in the city, saying, "Ideally, we should have people's representatives in legislative and parliamentary bodies who will be pitching for environmental and climate issues more actively in a sustained manner." He encouraged citizens to "use democratic rights, use the ballot (EVM)" during the interaction titled 'Reflecting on Nature, Ladakh and Climate Change: An Interaction with Sonam Wangchuk', organized by an NGO.

Asked if he would support any political party in his green mission, Wangchuk said, "I will say if there is no change (in saving the environment), the government has to change. But let every party turn into a green party instead of people individually approaching any big political leader. That has to be our mission." The Ramon Magsaysay awardee, known for inspiring the fictional character of Phunsukh Wangdu in the 2009 Bollywood film '3 Idiots', said the battle for any just cause and against discrimination yields desired results in the long run.

"Only 150 years ago, voting rights of blacks were wrested by the community after prolonged fighting from the sole domain of whites in the US. Similarly, the rights of women were granted in the 1920s in India, and keeping out women from the decision-making process is unthinkable at present," he said.

"In a similar way, we are looking for a day when granting due recognition to the issues of climate and ecology in Parliamentary polls will become a live issue, an issue flagged by every party and contender, and the issue will weigh in the mind of voters while casting their franchise," he added.

Wangchuk, the engineer-turned-innovator-education reformist, said he does not want to be a politician or a minister to realise his mission of saving the environment.

"I was recently asked in Nagpur if I want to be either education or environment minister, but I don't want to be either. Even our Prime Minister Narendra Modiji is helpless. He had initiated the banning of single-use plastics, but the order could not be followed up after three months. It shows the PM is helpless in enforcing his objective on such issues." "I rather wish to be among the people who make kings. I want to work with kingmakers. Only people can effect the changes, it will not happen overnight by asking the genie (of Aladdin)," he said.

To a question about potential threat to ecology due to tourism overdrive in Ladakh, he said, "There are no big hotels in the place and what thrives there is rural, organic tourism which is family based and having home stays." PTI SUS MNB