Author and natural historian David Attenborough gets Indira Gandhi Peace Prize 2019

In a virtual award ceremony, the renowned author and natural historian David Attenborough was conferred the Indira Gandhi Peace Prize.
Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave presented the award to Attenborough, who said, "We have to change from being nationalists to being international".
Congress President Sonia Gandhi was also present at the ceremony and said, "David is already well known to us all through his prodigious creativity in educating the humankind with brilliant films and books about the natural world.And he has, of late, been the most sensible voice warning us that we, more than anything else, are responsible for the accelerating threat to the environment on our planet."
"When environmental protection has become all the more imperative, when climate change and continued loss of bio-diversity is threatening livelihoods and public health, indeed life on earth, there could not have been a more appropriate choice for an award in her name than Sir David Attenborough."
The award is called the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development. It was instituted in the memory of the former prime minister in 1986. The winner will receive an award of Rs 25 lakh along with a citation.
Sonia Gandhi spoke of how Indira Gandhi adored nature and had a special connection to the natural world from a young age.
"As prime minister, she became an unwavering champion of environmental protection long before that cause had become popular both in India and abroad. While helping India accelerate the pace of investment and expand its economic infrastructure, she was very sensitive to the imperative of maintaining what she would often call ''ecological balance''. Her political innings were a search for that balance and a journey of educating her colleagues and the people to preserve that balance.
"It is not a surprise, therefore, to find that the legal and institutional framework India now has for protecting its wonderful bio-diversity had been put in place during her tenure as Prime Minister. It bears her personal imprimatur," Gandhi said.