Indira Gandhi Prize for 2019 conferred on British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough

The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for 2019 was on Monday conferred on Sir David Attenborough, British broadcaster and author whom former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh described as “human voice of nature”.

Speaking at the award ceremony held through videoconference, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said, “Sir David has been the most sensible voice warning us that we, more than anything else, are responsible for the accelerating threat to the environment on our planet. In essence, for well over half a century, Sir David has been one of Nature’s most staunch conscience keepers. Indira Gandhi too was one throughout her life. As Prime Minister, she became an unwavering champion of environmental protection long before that cause had become popular both in India and abroad.”

Manmohan Singh, who presented the award, said, “There can be no more deserving recipient of the award at this time when the world is gripped by growing anxiety over the state of our environment and our planet. If anyone who can be described as a living legend in the context of the natural world, it is Sir David. He has delighted us, entertained us, informed us and united us with nature in all its glories.”

“… we were very selective in allowing projects that impacted the wilderness or the habitat of wild life. Indeed, we were criticised by industrialists and those who thought we were being too restrictive. But I believe that if a proper balance is not firmly held, the results are deleterious and self-defeating,” he said at the event.

The UPA dispensation was accused by many in the industry and outside of being ”slow” in granting clearances to projects that affected the environment.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who also spoke at the online event, described David Attenborough as one of nature”s “most staunch conscience keepers” for over half a century.

David (94) is also the brother of actor Richard Attenborough.

“David is already well known to us all through his prodigious creativity in educating the humankind with brilliant films and books about the natural world. And he has, of late, been the most sensible voice warning us that we, more than anything else, are responsible for the accelerating threat to the environment on our planet,” Gandhi said in her speech.

“When environmental protection has become all the more imperative, when climate change and continued loss of bio-diversity is threatening livelihoods and public health, indeed life on earth, there could not have been a more appropriate choice for an award in her name than Sir David Attenborough,” she said.

Accepting the award, Attenborough said the world today is heading towards a major crisis, unlike any other that humanity has faced in all its history.

“It is not a national crisis – one which a single society can solve by a revolution – whether violent or peaceful. It is not even an international one, such as those that have erupted between nations and that have – within living memory – only been resolved after dreadful destruction and appalling suffering,” he said.

“We must change our ways and we must do so swiftly and globally. But success will only come if the nations of the world agree to act together, and help one another.

“This will not be easy. We have to change from being nationalists and become internationalists. And that, for all of us, will involve giving as well as taking,” Attenborough said.

“Politicians will only do that if they have the support for doing so from those who put them in power – and who could remove them if they fail to live up to their promises,” he said.

The Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development was instituted in the memory of the former prime minister by a trust in her name in 1986. It consists of a monetary award of Rs 25 lakh along with a citation.

The British broadcaster was awarded for a lifetime of doing more to reveal the wonders of the natural world and for tirelessly working to awaken humankind to the need to preserve and protect the biodiversity on our planet.

Manmohan Singh also paid tributes to former president Pranab Mukherjee, who chaired the jury for the award for three years. Mukherjee passed away last month.

The senior Congress leader said there can be no more deserving recipient of the award at this time when the world is gripped by growing anxiety over the state of our environment and planet.

He said Sir David for over seven decades has been the human voice of nature.

In recent times, Sir David has become one of the most vocal and effective advocates of environmental protection, raising his voice against the wanton destruction of the natural world in the name of progress and the seemingly insatiable needs of the human race, Singh noted.

“How acute the situation is cannot be clearer than from the pandemic that has gripped the earth, coincidentally almost exactly one century after the great influenza epidemic. To some, this is nature”s way of telling humankind to loosen its tightening grip on the resources of the earth, to be less exploitative, to respect the needs of the natural world, especially the animal kingdom, more and slow down the pace of environmental destruction.

“But it does not need an epidemic to tell us that we are not in good shape. Climate change, the assault on the oceans, pollution of atmosphere, junk floating about in space, reduction of forest cover, extinction of life in rivers, reduction of natural habitat for any life other than humans – all this is evident to anyone who has eyes to see,” the former prime minister added.

Describing Attenborough as the world’s leading authority on the natural world, Sonia Gandhi said his passion has been inspiring and is also to reiterate what we all acknowledge.

“Age has not dimmed his zeal, neither has humanity’s will ful disregard for what he says,” she said, adding that he has kept going relentlessly, educating, enlightening and sensitising millions of people.