Retired Supreme Court judge Kuldip Singh has been named the Environmentalist of the year, 1996 by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Anubhav group of companies.
The award which includes a plaque and Rs 5 lakh was presented to Singh at a function here yesterday.
The award was presented by C Natesan, chairman of the Chennai-based Anubhav group of companies. A panel comprising Maneka Gandhi, Julio Rebeiro, Nana Chudasama, M B Nirmal and C Natesan selected Kuldip Singh for this title for giving immediate justice and making environment an important element of development.
Speaking on the behalf of the panel, Maneka Gandhi said Kuldip Singh was responsible for making the relation between environment and development more meaningful. The retired judge said industrial development should not be at the cost of the balance between biosphere (natural world) and the world that man himself created which he termed as technosphere.
If this balance between the two worlds is not maintained, inter-generational equity cannot be realised, he said. The balance between the worlds can be maintained only if we follow sustainable-development, he added. Unless there is increased public awareness on environment related issues, the country is headed to disaster, he concluded.
Singh also illustrated the governments apathy towards environmental degradation by the fact that for almost three decades the central government did not have a ministry of environment.
