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Suman Guha Mozumder in New York
Dr Ashok Khosla, a leading environmentalist, was given the top United Nations Environmental Programme Sasakawa Environment Award on Tuesday evening for 'combining life in the glittering halls of academia with on-the-ground livelihood and development schemes for the rural poor'.
The award, which carries a money component of $200,000, was given to Dr Khosla by Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UNEP, at a ceremony at the American Folk Art Museum.
"Development that is environmentally sustainable is at the core of the work of Dr Ashok Khosla," Toepfer said in his remarks before presenting the award. "The combination of dedication and expertise shown by Dr Khosla throughout his career make him a worthy candidate for the UNEP Sasakawa Environment Prize."
Khosla, who has taught in Harvard and is the founding director of the Government of India's Office of Environmental Planning and Coordination, the first national environmental agency in a developing country set up in 1972, sounded very modest after accepting the award.
"I feel quite humbled. Humbled, when I think of what little I myself have been able to do and of how much credit I get for the work and effort of so many others," he said.
According to the UNEP Khosla has worked tirelessly to demonstrate both the theory and practice of 'sustainable development' through his teaching and fostering of environment-friendly and commercially viable technologies.
"Dr Ashok Khosla has set out to tackle the root cause of problems and provide the people with resources to overcome them, affording them at the same time dignity and respect," Lord Clinton Davis, chairperson of the Sasakawa Prize selection committee, said.
"For some 40 years -- long before the environment became a popular issue -- he was teaching and pioneering ways in which a developing economy could integrate with and attain environmental goals," he added.
Late last month when the award was announced in Nairobi, Khosla said that the award was really for the work of many partners and collaborators with whom he has worked over the last 40 years.
On Tuesday, just before the award ceremony, he expressed similar sentiment.
"Why me? I have not done anything to deserve it. I am just trying to figure it out [as to why]. But it feels good, and nice [to get the honour]," Khosla said.
"In an economy where money is hard to come by [the prize money] gives us a chance to do a little more interesting things for our projects," Khosla told rediff.com, alluding to the Internet Venture for Rural India started by Development Alternatives, which Khosla founded in 1983.
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