Union Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy on Wednesday planted a sapling at the Border Security Force (BSF) Headquarters in New Delhi on the occasion of World Environment Day and said the country will need to come together for the cause.
"We will all have to work for preserving the environment for our sake, for the sake of the country and for the sake of the world. The World Environment Day is celebrated today but the work in this regard goes on around the year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi signed the Paris Agreement and has also taken several steps to preserve it," Reddy said at the event organised in BSF headquarters.
Reddy added that the security personnel of the BSF and other forces face the severity of the climate change every day and expressed concern over the receding groundwater levels in the country.
"Our security forces working in extreme situations on the borders know how hard climate change has hit us. It is because of our neglect that the situation has turned worse, our groundwater is running low in many regions, lower than what it was a few decades back," he said.
Reddy advocated for the use of electric vehicles, and called for reducing the usage of plastic products and said the green cover must be increased in regions across the country. He also hailed former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee's river-interlinking project and said it was very much needed to bring about balance in the country.