Teen eco-warrior to address UN meet

Pravin Kumar | TNN

Lucknow: At around 10:30 am on Tuesday (8pm IST), after Kenyan Nobel laureate Wangari Mathaai finishes her speech at the summit on climate change, to be held at United Nations General Assembly in New York, she will be followed by a 13-year-girl from UP.

Yugratna Srivastava, a Class IX student of St Fidelis College of the city, is a special invitee of UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon. When she addresses the session about environment conservation, there will be over 100 heads of state, including US President Barack Obama, in the audience.

Yugratna has been spreading awareness about climate change and sustainable development. She is a member of Tarumitra, an NGO which creates awareness about the environment among schoolchildren. The NGO has over 16,000 schools across India as its members.

She was selected to address the UN session last year in Norway, where she had gone to attend the international children’s conference on environment. “Over 1,200 children from all over the world had come to attend the conference,’’ recalls Fr Robert Athickal SJ of Tarumitra, “and so electrifying was her speech there that she was instantly picked up to represent the children of the world at the summit on climate change.’’

“She is amazing and you just have to listen to her to feel the kind of impact she makes through her speeches,’’ says Fr Athickal while talking to TOI from Patna, where the Tarumitra is based. Yugranta, a resident of Muzaffarngaar in western UP, has joined St Fidelis College of the city recently.

“That she was special we all knew and see how soon she has proved us right,” says a teacher of the college. The invite that she has received from Janos Pasztor, director, UN Secretary General’s Climate Change Support Team, recognises her endeavour in generating awareness about environment conservation. “You have been selected to represent the voice of world’s young people at the summit,’’ says the letter.

VOICE OF INDIA
Yugratna Srivastava, a Class IX UP student who has been spreading awareness about climate change, is the special invitee of UN Secy Gen Ban Ki-Moon to address the UN session on environment conservation