6 June:The Ministry of Environment and Forests, instituted an award called “Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar “, in the year 1987 to give recognition to those having made or have the potential to make the measurable and major impact in the protection of environment.
The governing body of the IGPP revised also revised and instituted from the year 2005 one prize of Rs.5,00,000/- under the Organisation category, and two prizes of Rs.3,00,000/- and Rs.2,00,000/- each to individuals in the Individual category to be given annually. Along with the cash prize, each awardee is given a silver lotus trophy and a citation
For the year 2005 , the Ministry received a total number of 190 nominations (125 individuals and 65 organisations) out of which 34 nominations ( 22 individual and 12 organisations) were short listed by the expert members. The ground-truth verification of these short listed nominations have been carried out by the Regional Offices of the Ministry.
The Sant Gadge Baba Amrawati University, Maharashtra was established on 1st May 1983 with the objective to provide excellent quality of higher education & learning to the students of five districts of Vidarbha. The University has taken extensive afforestation programmes since 1986. This includes Avenue plantation, Agro forestry, Farm forestry, Timber, Fodder, Medicinal plants as well as beautifying parks & gardens with landscaping.
The afforestation programme of the University covers an area of 285.66 ha. The University has carried out afforestation work with the help of NSS, NCC and local villagers. The University has planted more than six lakh plants in and around Amarawati District in an area of 286 ha. in hilly and ravenous tracts. The University is also working on soil conservation, vermi-composting and rainwater harvesting projects. An extremely significant achievement of the University is the establishment of active National Service Scheme in 192 units in University affiliated colleges through which the University has achieved commendable success in awareness generation & motivation of citizens and villagers for conservation of nature and tree plantation. The University has also established village nurseries for distribution of seedlings to the local villagers for plantation.
The University has also extended the activities of the N.S.S units to 142 adopted villages for environmental awareness, education and plantation pogrammes. Nature clubs & eco-clubs have been set up in each college.
Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Puraskar- 2005 (Organisation category- Rs.5.0 lakh) is awarded to the Sant Gadge Baba Amrawati University, Maharastra in recognition of its outstanding contribution to environmental amelioration, environmental conservation and creating environmental awareness in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.