Satyakam Arya, (2nd left) Managing Director and CEO of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) presenting 31st edition of Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Environmental Protection 2025 award to N. Devakumar Sahala Samrudha from Mysuru and Veerappan from Cuddalore along RTN Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chairperson, MSSRF, C.K. Ranganathan, Founder of CavinKare group and RTN Balaji Sreenivasan, President Rotary Club of Madras East during the M.S. Swaminathan 100th year celebration in Chennai on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM
Two noteworthy initiatives were honoured at the 31st edition of the Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Award for Environmental Protection, an award instituted by the Rotary Club of Madras East (RCME) in the name of its honorary member and agricultural scientist, the late M.S. Swaminathan.
The first award was given to Sahaja Samrudha, from Mysuru, a people’s movement to preserve India’s traditional farming practices and conserve the rich biodiversity of indigenous crop varieties. In his acceptance speech, N. Devakumar from Sahaja Samrudha pointed out that how the organization has been instrumental in conserving traditional paddy varieties and millets.
The second recipient of the award was 60-year-old Veerappan, an Irular fisherman from Kalaignar Nagar village. He was honoured for his contributions in the field of environmental protection. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Veerappan explained how his team propagated mud crabs. “I now train college students in crab and fish propagation,” he added.
The Dr. M.S. Swaminathan Award is presented to either an individual, a company, or an NGO that has contributed, either directly or indirectly, to enhancing environmental protection and awareness. This initiative is being supported by CavinKare Pvt. Ltd.
The event was presided over by Balaji Sreenivasan, President, Rotary Club of Madras East (RCME), District Governor Vinod Saraogi, and C.K. Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director of CavinKare.
Soumya Swaminathan, chairperson of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, said that the mangrove protection work initiated in the early 1990s in villages like MGR Nagar and Kalaignar Nagar in Cuddalore district played a vital role in safeguarding the villagers during the tsunami. She also emphasized that coastal areas remain among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Ms. Swaminathan recalled a recent initiative by her team, carried out with the support of local volunteers, to address plastic pollution. “We cleaned 100 beaches with local volunteers. More than 30,000 kg of plastic waste was collected and out of that 10,000 kg was ghost gear (waste nets thrown away by fishermen) – they are dangerous because they trap turtles, dolphins and a lot of marine life,” she said.
Published – September 29, 2025 05:45 am IST
