supporting sustainable development and could play larger roles in working to resolve environmental
issues.
Based on this work, we have decided to initiate a sincere dialogue and awareness program for the
environment in India. We plan to organize a chain of conferences. There are hundreds conferences
currently going on across the globe and in India, but they do not touch the common people. This
chain of conferences will not be limited to research in academic institutions. If a person, a local
community, a voluntary group is doing works or making efforts for the environment on the ground
then they will have the opportunity to present and speak at these conferences. Various stratums of
the human systems co-related with the environment will also be participate. This includes people in
urban and rural areas; the media; lawyers; local administration; research institutes; policy activists;
students; local leaders; NGOs; corporate sector; central and state governments including
government bureaucrats, political leaders and common leaders.
The environment is not limited to the planting of trees, or building of water bodies. The use of
natural resources depends on the community mentality, customs and social behaviours. This chain
of conferences will try to understand the solution locally with relation to society as a whole.
With the support of local people, academics, government, private sector, civil society and you,
Ground Report India Group will conduct three levels of conferences over two years from July 2012 to
October 2014 for mass awareness and public dialogues on environmental issues. This includes:
- 1 international conference
- 10 regional conferences in different states in India
- 195 local conferences in different regions of many states across India
- A 100,000 kilometres exclusive national tour covering different areas of India
- Talks, quizzes and debates in colleges, institutes and universities
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The objectives
After the conferences, we hope that people will at least begin to think about their local
environmental issues, to know about the global environmental problems and how humans impact
upon it. Presently, we see that people don’t understand the important role they can personally play
to protect the environment. At the moment, environmental activism in India is elite or is considered
an elitist activity in the mind set of many people. People think they cannot do anything to protect
the env