The ministry will have a live virtual interactive session from 10.30 am to mark the day and the idea of ‘Reimagine, recreate and restore’ had been coined for the biologists to come out with ideas and suggestions that will help restore the ecosystem,” said a MoEF official.

In TN, planting of saplings and afforestation drives are planned by stakeholders and they will be taken up by the foresters. Wildlife authorities at Periyar Tiger Reserve bordering TN and Kerala have invited school students to plant saplings in their neighbourhood and shoot a two to three-minute video of the event along with a message on ecosystem restoration.

“The 2021 world environment day is being observed amidst the second wave of COVID and the climate change effect is visible. There is strong evidence of environmental degradation and the theme for the current year of restoring the ecosystem is the aptest title for all cities including Chennai that is choking with polluted water bodies,” said KVRK Thirunaranan, founder, The Nature Trust.

“The objective of the celebration is to remind people that nature is borrowed from our children and not be taken for granted. From tomorrow we will forward videos of birdlife and how pollution affects the ecological cycle for school children and through social media. Already a small video on how pollution affects the life of common coot in urban cities is shared as a prelude to world environment day,” Thirunaranan said.

Forest degradation and pollution had emerged as the most challenging tasks for Indian states and WWF India is taking up campaigns as part of the environment day and this year most of the activities will be digital, says Sri Kumar of WWF, TN. WWF India also instructed its field biologists and ornithologists to conduct virtual events that will create awareness focussing youngsters and children.