The world has once again recognized the ability of Indians. Vidyut Mohan, an Indian, is among the seven winners of the ‘Young Champions of the Earth 2020’, award given by the United Nations Environment Agency. Appreciating the efforts of 29 year old Mohan, the United Nations has said that the innovative ideas with which Young Mind is coming forward to curb climate change will see positive results.
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This is how farmers were motivated
The United Nations Environment Agency offers the Young Champions of the Earth to those working towards solving environmental challenges through new ideas. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said in a statement that Vidyut Mohan, engineer and co-founder of ‘Takachar’ company, a social enterprise which enable farmers to prevent open burning of their waste farm residues and earn extra income by converting them into value-added chemicals like activated carbon on-site
Praised by Antonio Guterres
Expressing happiness over being chosen among the winners, Vidyut Mohan said, “I always wanted to work on the subject of access to energy and providing income opportunities to poor communities”. At the same time, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that during the pandemic, the problems of society have increased, the economy has also been affected. In such a situation, we have to take concrete steps immediately for the damage done to nature. The ‘Young Champions of the Earth’ are working to inspire and push people in this direction.
30,000 tons of waste disposed so far
UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said that youth are playing an important role in climate change by providing meaningful solutions to the damage of biodiversity. Vidyut Mohan’s company ‘Takachar’ takes farmers’ paddy husk, straw and coconut peels and converts them into charcoal and motivates farmers to stop burning waste. Since the company’s inception in 2018, Mohan and company co-founder Kevin Kung have worked closely with about 4500 farmers and have disposed of 30,000 tonnes of waste so far.
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Will help in making the environment clean
Mark Radka, head of the Energy and Climate Branch at UNEP’s Economy Division, said that burning agricultural residues is a major source of air pollution in many parts of the world, and innovative techniques of ‘Takachar’ help the environment. He further said that till 2030, ‘Takachar’ can affect large number of farmers.