Indigenous Peoples’ Voices on Biodiversity: Mr. Damian Soreng  – India

Message from Mr. Damian Soreng, Indigenous Activist from Odisha State, India

Johar everyone! My name is Damian Soreng. I belong to the Khadia Indigenous community.

Now I would like to share something about biodiversity. Environment means what we see around us like trees, rivers, seas, forests, living and non-living things, animals and birds, air, and water. The environment is being polluted due to industries and mines.

Therefore, we should not cut the juggle and trees, rather we should protect them. Because every tree in its lifetime releases around 2000 liters of oxygen into the atmosphere. At the last moment of life, we yearn for oxygen. When we are in the hospital in the ICU, we take oxygen and in the absence of oxygen we give up breathing.

We get oxygen from trees. So, we should plant trees as much as possible. In our forefather’s time, there used to be dense forests and the weather used to be cold. Now it is seen that there are a lot of strong storms, sudden changes in weather, very little rainfall, sudden rain, and flooding due to global warming.
Therefore, I request you all to plant the trees you want to plant in those barren lands where no cultivation is done to keep the land cool. I want to add, during my forefathers’ time, there used to be lots of trees and the atmosphere was also peaceful.

The house-made up of bricks and cement from the factory is hot. That’s why we need artificial fans, coolers, and AC. So, please, make a mud house, it is cool and keeps the environment cool also. If we make mud houses not from bricks and cement, we live in a cool house and atmosphere.

As well, we save money and don’t need AC and coolers. I want to say only this much.

Thank you everyone!

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