To mark International Mountain Day, the Lal Bahadur Mountaineering Institute (LMI) and Ramanashree Udaya Education Society held a State-level seminar on ‘Adventure and environment’ here on Saturday. The event was inaugurated by C. Somashekhar, Excise Commissioner.
During the inauguration ceremony, the LMI urged the State and Union governments to declare the Western Ghats a National Biosphere Reserve. “About 25 years ago, the strong movement to declare Silent Valley a National Biosphere Reserve succeeded. Similarly, we want the government to take up this issue and give the same status to the Western Ghats,” said M.K. Sridhar of the seminar’s organising committee. The LMI also urged the government to request UNESCO to declare the Himalayas a World Heritage Site.
Subash Bharani, chairman of LMI, urged students to get in touch with nature, and encouraged them to attend trekking and mountaineering camps in their holidays. He also requested the government for an office for LMI.
M.A Khalid, vice-president of LMI, delivered the keynote address and touched upon the importance of mountains, climate change and possible approaches and measures for sustainable mountain development.
The inaugural program was followed by the seminar, which included talks such as ‘Forest and wildlife in Karnataka’ by H.G. Shivananda Murthy, a slideshow on birds of Mysore by M.G. Kodandaram, a presentation on ‘Mountains of Asia’ by Thuppil Venkatesh and a slideshow on wildlife by S. Devendra Kumar.
