Degradation of the environment due to blind pursuit of material wealth: Prof. Behl

5 Dariya News

Amritsar 13-Feb-2020

“The issue of environmental degradation across the globe needs to be tackled by one & all in unison, irrespective of the an academic discipline, one is engaged in”, remarked Prof. S. S. Behl, Dean, Academic Affairs and Professor Architecture of the Guru Nanak Dev University. Prof. Behl was addressing the inaugural session of the one week Short Term Course (STC) on Environmental Awareness at UGC HRDC of the university in which 27 University & College teachers pertaining to a multiplicity of academic disciplines are participating. Continuing his address, he emphasized that this pressing challenge of utmost significance can be confronted only, if academicians belonging to various disciplines get their act together in tandem with the masses at large. Singling out the insatiable greed of the mankind for such level of deterioration in environment, he opined that the mankind of today is in the blind pursuit of material wealth, having unfortunately, forgotten the stark reality that it is the material wealth, that can be created, earned, & amassed, but the natural wealth or environment in the form of forests, air, water etc is well beyond the power of the mankind as of now.Quoting from the verses of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji, he said, that he was the one, who, having realized the true worth of nature for the humanity five centuries ago, sermonized to live in harmony with the nature. 

The prevalent political systems across the globe, which, believes in creating more & more material wealth by all the means, without having an iota of consideration for the environmental degradation, also need to heed attention to this grave issue, he concluded.Prof. Adarsh Pal Vig, Director of the Centre in his welcome address apprised the participants with the name & fame of the University and the Centre, which, he said, has carved a niche for itself in the realms of higher education in the country in a comparatively short span of five decades. Exhorting the participants to take the possible difficulties in their stride, he counseled them to pay attention to the augmentation of their knowledge on an issue of global ramifications & to disseminate it further as the teaching fraternity is the best messenger to get the message across to the society at large.Dr. Puja Ohri, Deptt. of Zoology & the coordinator briefed the participants with the thrust area of the course. Prof. Satwinder Kaur Dhillon, Head, Deptt. of Zoology proposed the vote of thanks. Earlier the Chief Guest was extended a formal welcome by Prof. Adarsh Pal Vig, Prof. Satwinder Kaur Dhillon, Dr. Mohan Kumar and Dr. Puja Ohri. Prof. Arvinder Kaur and Dr. Pooja Chadha from the Deptt. of Zoology were also present on this occasion.