NEW DELHI, INDIA, March 31, 2001: India’s first Green Scientist Award has been conferred on researcher V.P. Sharma for devising environment-friendly strategies to battle malaria, which affects around 2.5 million people in the country every year. Sharma was given the award by the Center for Science and Environment (CSE), a non- governmental organization (NGO) here, in recognition of his “path-breaking efforts to develop bioenvironmental strategies to control the malaria-bearing mosquito.” Unlike traditional high-cost pesticide oriented anti-malaria initiatives, Sharma is credited with devising strategies that serve a two-fold purpose of disease prevention and employment generation. Sharma’s per capita method cost comes to about 15 US cents, 6.5 cents less than the government spends on pesticide-centered methods. Instituted by CSE, the biannual Green Scientist Award honors scientific efforts in the crucial but ignored area of environmental science.
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