Delegates at the meet on Monday. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

Patna, Feb. 21: Intellectuals bemoaned the sorry state of nature due to man’s exploitation for development at the two-day national symposium on “Changes in Environment: Reasons and Solution” organised by the chemistry department of Sri Arvind Mahila College on its premises today.

The Commission for Scientific Technical Terminology (CSTT) and the ministry of human resource development department of higher education sponsored the symposium.

“After witnessing drastic changes in nature, it seems that both man and humanity are advancing towards a catastrophe in their yearning for global development. People now have to decide if this stands for development or it points to a few people’s greed,” said Shailesh Pandit, a noted director in Patna Doordarshan, in his inaugural address at the seminar.

“How long would we play with nature in the name of global development in this capitalist society? We need to revert to our roots. The solution to our problems lies in our cultural background,” said Pandit.

The chief guest and pro-vice-chancellor of Mithila University, Rajmani Prasad Sinha, said: “At present, global warming is one of the reasons for climate change and millions of dollars have been spent to contain the effects. This is where scientists must step forward but the society too needs to play a pivotal role in this,” said Sinha.

“Our lifestyles need a serious makeover,” said S.N.P. Sinha, the pro-vice-chancellor of Patna University, who presided over the seminar.

“Agriculture-based planning should be the way forward but we need change our mindsets. Either we don’t know what we are doing at this moment or we don’t want to understand the consequences of our doings even if we know about it. On the other hand, I would request genuine nature lovers not to give up their optimism. When every minute three different kind of species are getting extinct according to a recent report, our planet is not far away from being demolished,” said Sinha. He also quoted Mahatma Gandhi — “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need but not every man’s greed”.

“Man has lost his humanity in his greed for social desires. Unless he wakes up, he would be the cause for his own destruction,” said Asha Singh, the principal of Sri Arvind Mahila College.

Dharmendra Kumar, the co-director of CSTT, said 10 resource persons would address the two-day national symposium.