When other countries are achieving outstanding success in protecting nature, India is voyaging towards the opposite side, opined Energy and Resources Institute Director General Dr R K Pachauri.

He was delivering the convocation address during the Manipal University Convocation-2012 ceremony here at KMC Greens on Saturday.

Stating that many parts of the world are cleaning up the air that they breathe and the rivers that flow through their land and also expanding their forest cover, he regretted that India is going towards the opposite direction, infatuated with the goal of maintaining high rates of GDP growth. He added that if the authorities concerned do not take steps, many natural resources will deplete, which cannot be recovered.

Quoting Gandhiji, Pachauri said that speed is irrelevant if it is going in the wrong direction. “I have every reason to believe that the genius of the Indian people and the reverence we have always displayed towards nature will correct the massive imbalance we see today and the myopic actions that are depriving us of the richness that nature blessed us with,” he said and added that India could emerge as the pioneer, for showing the way towards a sustainable future, for the world.

He said that the Indian society is undergoing a transformation in the same direction as that of the US.

“This may give some short term satisfaction and sense of pride, but once the honeymoon with materialism goes beyond the initial euphoria, we need to reflect on where we are going. We are a country of 1.2 billion people and still growing,” he reminded and opined that the Indians are exploiting and abusing the natural resources because nobody feels that it is their responsibility to protect it.

Former chief Justice of India M N Venkatachaliah was conferred honorary doctorate, doctor of Law (LL.D) on the occasion.

Awardees

The following students received gold medal in different disciplines here at Manipal University convocation ceremony.

Best outgoing BE graduate (Manipal Institute of Technology): Kavya Srinet; Best outgoing B Pharm graduate (Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences): Sanchari Basu Mallik; Best outgoing BDS graduate (Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore): Benjie Law Zi Yuan; Best outgoing BHM graduate (Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration, Manipal): Aarthi Seshadri;
Best outgoing BSc Nursing graduate (Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal): Tenzin Choekyi; Best outgoing BA Journalism & Communication Studies graduate (Manipal Institute of
Communication): Vrinda Manocha and Aditya Valiathan Pillai; Best outgoing graduate student of Allied Health Sciences (Manipal College of Allied Health Sciences): Fatema Mustafa Amijee; Best outgoing BSc Biotechnology graduate (Manipal Life Sciences Centre): Shilpa Patil; Best outgoing BBA graduate (Manipal Institute of Jewellery Management): Subha Ravindranath
Cheleri; Best outgoing B Arch graduate (Manipal School of Architecture and Planning): Deepika Peethambaran Nambiar; Best outgoing M Pharm postgraduate (Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences): Sutha Neelam Ashokkumar;
Best outgoing MS Communication postgraduate (Manipal Institute of Communication): Sonia Ghalian; Best outgoing MS Information Science postgraduate (Manipal Centre for Information Science): Shekhil Hassan T; and Best outgoing MBA postgraduate (Manipal Institute of Management): Vinay Raju Gowda.