NEW DELHI: In his speech at the National Conference on Environment 2025’s closing session, Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar emphasized that India has been a leader in sustainable living for a long time, even before the term became popular.

“India lived sustainability for centuries, where every river was a goddess and every banyan tree was a temple, long before it became a global buzzword,” he said.

The National Green Tribunal’s (NGT) green court organized the two-day conference. Dhankhar emphasized throughout the ceremony the need of an organization like the NGT serving as a watchdog on environmental concerns. “The Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984 might have been avoided if such an organization had existed earlier,” he pondered.

“Many tragedies could have been prevented if we had a regulatory body like the NGT at the time,” he said.

The V-P lamented that we still haven’t learned anything from the incident and explained that the gas disaster was the result of environmental irresponsibility.

He went on to discuss the importance of the tribunal, proposing that the “N” in the acronym meant for “nurturing,” the “G” for “green,” and the “T” for “tomorrow.”

Dhankhar emphasized that this is not only wordplay but rather a vision for an organization that combines ethics, science, and law to change how we interact with the natural world. In an attempt to rescue the globe, he also exhorted industrialized nations to look outside their own boundaries.

He said, “The planet is not exclusive to us. There is a global need to evolve and embrace environmental ethics, emphasizing man’s moral obligations to protect and preserve the environment.” Animals and plants must coexist peacefully with other living things.