Biodiversity Week celebrated with great verve and fervor at BALCO
21st May 2022Balconagar; 21st May, 2022: Bharat Aluminium Company Limited (BALCO), India’s iconic aluminium producer, organized several programmes like Srishti Sanrakshan Sammelan, Fruit Orchard Development, Pond Restoration etc in commemoration of World Biodiversity Day, 22 May in line with this year’s theme, ‘Building a shared a future for all’.
The celebration started with the inception of a three day long fest, ‘Srishti Sanrakshan Sammelan’ in the BALCO township premises with objective of disseminating awareness to the larger mass and sensitizing them to undertake sincere steps towards biodiversity conservation at an individual level. The fest entailed various stalls such as a Transformation Stall which displayed informative documentaries on the subject of Biodiversity for the visitors, a plant stall where locally grown products produced by local farmers through organic farming were kept for distribution. Also two stalls of Korba forest department were installed to distribute ayurvedic products and medicinal plants along with edifying the visitors regarding their utility. Apart from this, a jungle trail was conducted for the kids to inform them and sensitise them towards the rich biodiversity present around them.
In order to engage extended members of the BALCO family, fruit bearing plants were planted by the employees and their family members to develop a fruit orchard. With the objective of rejuvenating nearby natural water resources, around 21 ponds were taken under the ‘Pond Restoration’ project. An interdepartmental selfie contest ‘Nature Connect, Social Connect’ has also been organized to further increase the enthusiasm of the workforce towards this crucial subject.
Speaking on the importance of biodiversity conservation, Mr. Abhijit Pati, CEO & Director, BALCO, said, “World Biodiversity Day is an appropriate occasion to remind all of us to introspect and evaluate whether our activities are aligned in the direction of biodiversity conservation or not. Today, when the world is facing challenges on multiple fronts, it becomes all the more pertinent and important for all of us to focus on conservation of biodiversity. As right action at right time can bring transformative results, BALCO is committed towards fulfilling its ESG goals and to transform the society for good. The efforts at individual level are equally important along with the efforts at organizational level. Hence, BALCO is also committed to sensitise each member of the BALCO family to take small steps to preserve the biodiversity in our surroundings and contribute towards, ‘Building a shared future for all’.”
BALCO has recently been awarded numerous prestigious awards for its environmental conservation efforts such as ‘Golden Peacock Sustainability Award’, ‘CII HSE Excellence Award, Chhattisgarh’, ‘CII Energy Excellence Award’, ‘Sustainable business of the year Award’ and ‘Energy & Environment Global Environment Award’ in recent years. This year BALCO has been conferred with ‘Best Green Business Award’ and ‘Best Green Excellence Award’.
