Reduce Plastics: Kishan’s Plea on Environment Day

HYDERABAD: Union minister for coal and mines G. Kishan Reddy, accompanied by students from various government schools in Telangana, who achieved top ranks in the 10th class public examinations, planted saplings at his official residence in Delhi as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative of ‘Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam’ and asked them to don the role as new age environment warriors and work hard to save earth from plastic pollution. He also gave them tips on environmental protection.

He also complimented the efforts made by those working at the grassroots to make our environment greener and better. This year’s World Environment Day aims to highlight the growing scientific evidence on the impacts of plastic pollution and is building momentum to refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rethink plastics use to build a cleaner and more sustainable future. The minister strongly urged the coal and mines ministries to make concerted efforts to reduce plastics.

In his social media post, Kishan Reddy also highlighted the efforts made by his ministry for the last 10 years for environment protection. In an effort to reclaim and convert the mining land as fertile land, Kishan Reddy claimed that over 2,459 hectares of mined land turned into eco-parks and forests in 2024-25 by the coal ministry by planting over 54 lakh saplings.

The coal ministry had set a target of 3 GW of solar power capacity by 2025–26 and 9 GW by 2030 primarily for captive consumption to push solar energy. Even as coal production crosses 1 billion tonnes, India’s energy mix continues to emphasise renewable energy.

Under the National Critical Mineral Mission, India will build a resilient value chain for critical minerals for green technologies, with an outlay of `16,300 crore, Kishan Reddy added.