Port Blair, March 13: The first Samir Acharya Annual Memorial Award function was held at Chinmaya Mission, Port Blair on Saturday 12th March 2022. The award was bagged by Shri Chanchal Singharoy, a government teacher who has been instrumental in educating the rural children to understand their surroundings better. The function was graced by Smti. Geetanjali Acharya, Smti. Pushpanjali Raju and Ms Samhita Veda Acharya among others.
The Samir Acharya Memorial Award and Lecture has been created to honour the life and work of Late Samir Acharya, who fought for the Andaman & Nicobar Islands’ ecology and tribal communities till his last breath (i.e. 16th Oct. 2020). After his demise, his family had decided to come up with this award in order to identify and recognise deserving individuals and organisations doing exemplary work on these issues around coastal communities and ecosystems that he held so dear. The first award was supposed to be held in 2021 but due to the prevailing pandemic situation, it had to be postponed to this year.
The award was open for nomination from across the country and after a close examination of contributions by individuals and organisations, a jury comprising of Dr. Manish Chandi and Dr. Simronjit Singh decided to confer the award to Shri Chanchal Singha Roy from A&N Islands.
Speaking about his experience after receiving the award, Singharoy explained his journey in the field of environmental education for rural children. He said that there was a time when he was at loss on how to proceed further, when he happened to meet Late Samir Acharya. Samir Acharya not only guided him but also opened the INTACH library to Singharoy for a better understanding on the subject. He also explained that in his crusade to spread environment educate among children, he himself was able to learn a lot in return. Unlike usual government teachers, Singharoy always felt blessed when he was given a posting in remote areas like Diglipur, Kadamtala etc. He saw it as an opportunity to spread his mission. He added that students are taught many things in school but we fail to educate them about their immediate surroundings. And this was a challenge that he took up voluntarily.
Chanchal Singharoy has been instrumental in creating a Coastal Green Zone for the children in different villages and gradually received support from different organisations including the Andaman Nicobar Environment Team (ANET). He has also been working with the fishermen communities. The cash prize that he received during the award ceremony was donated on the spot by him to one such fishermen community.
Among the others who spoke on the occasion were Smti Pushpanjali Raju and Ms Samhita Veda Acharya who described the life events of Samir Acharya.
In his three decades of activism in the islands, Mr Acharya inspired and educated many on the need to conserve the fragile ecology of the islands and the need to protect the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) of the archipelago. One of his major achievements as the Secretary of Society for Andaman & Nicobar Ecology (SANE) was the Landmark Supreme Court Ruling of 2002 in response to a petition by SANE, Kalpavriksh and BNHS.
Late Samir Acharya was born on 16th February 1944 in Balurghat, West Bengal, to Shri Nisheet Ranjan Acharya and Smt. Pratibha Acharya. A bright kid in school, he was double promoted twice, reaching college at the age of 16. Later in his life he shifted to Andaman & Nicobar Islands as the Secretary, Social Welfare and fell in love with the simplicity of the islanders. In the years that followed, he emerged as the focal point for environmental activism in the islands.