2024 Goldman Environment Prize

• Chhattisgarh’s environmental activist and convenor of Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan Alok Shukla has been selected for the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize.
• The Goldman Environmental Prize, also popularly known as the Green Nobel Prize, is awarded annually to grassroots environmental champions worldwide.
• He has won Goldman Prize or Green Nobel for Hasdeo Aranya campaign.
• Goldman Foundation said Hasdeo movement is a model for environmental justice in India.
• Alok Shukla is convenor of the Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan.
• He is the founding member of the Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti.
• He has won for efforts to protect the forests of Hasdeo Aranya in Chhattisgarh.
• The community campaign led by Alok Shukla saved 445,000 acres of biodiversity-rich forests from 21 planned coal mines in Chhattisgarh.
• In July 2022, the 21 proposed coal mines were cancelled by the government in Hasdeo Aranya.
• The forests of Hasdeo Aranya are popularly known as the lungs of Chhattisgarh.
• They are also a catchment area for the Hasdeo River, which is a tributary of the Mahanadi.
• Hasdeo Aranya was declared as no-go zone in 2010.

Goldman Environmental Prize

• The Goldman Environmental Foundation gives the Goldman Environmental Prize. Richard and Rhonda Goldman founded the prize in 1989.
• The Prize recognises grassroots environment leaders from six regions.
• These regions are Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South and Central America and lastly, islands and island nations.
• The winners are awarded $200,000 as prize money.

Winners of the 2024 Goldman Environmental Prize 

This year, seven people from six inhabited regions of the globe have been selected for the annual Goldman Environmental Prize. They are :