London, Nov 7 (IANS) Hindu leaders in Britain have teamed up with Prince Philip and the UN to launch a long-term action plan that will engage with the community worldwide in the fight against climate change, an Oxford University centre said.
The Bhumi Project was launched Friday after a three-way meeting between Hindu leaders, Prince Philip - the husband of Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II - and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon as part of this week’s environmental summit at Windsor Castle, attended by over 200 faith leaders from nine major world religions.

The meeting was called by the UN Development Programme and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), a secular body founded by Prince Philip to help world religions develop their own environmental programmes.

Over the next nine years, the Bhumi Project will implement a series of initiatives to help Hindus engage in environmental action to better care for the planet, Oxford University’s Centre for Hindu Studies said.

“Hindu tradition and history is replete with stories and references to ‘bhumi’, to mother earth, and we want to help Hindus re-learn these sacred teachings and find new relevance for them in the modern world,” said Centre director Shaunaka Rishi Das, who helped formulate the project.

“Because there are 900 million Hindus worldwide, the environmental choices we make will have a significant impact on our climate,” said Neal Raithatha of the UK National Hindu Students Forum, a delegate at the Windsor Castle summit.

“We must work in India in particular to ensure increasing urbanisation and affluence does not put undue strain on the country’s natural beauty and cultural heritage sites. We must make sure environmental destruction is not the price we pay for India’s economic growth,” he added.

Specific proposals include educating members of Hindu communities on best environmental practice; developing a Hindu labelling scheme for a range of products and services; helping all Hindu places of worship employ the highest standards of environmental practice; and partnering with conservation projects in India, such as those involved in cleaning the river Ganges.

The project will start by working with British Hindus before being taken to America and eventually introduced to India.