GUWAHATI, Jan 27 � Filmmaker Jahnu Barua, recipient of the Padma Bhushan, and litterateur Dr Lakshmi Nandan Bora and environmental activist Jadav Payeng who were awarded the Padma Shri, today said that they were happy with the awards and termed them as an honour for the people of Assam.
Barua said the award meant a lot for the people of Assam, and particularly for the artiste fraternity and the young generation.
�I dedicate the award to the people of my State�I believe that art has a special role to play in negating all the adverse effects in a strife-torn society and in promoting peace, harmony and brotherhood,� he said.
Dr Bora said he was happy with the honour, more so because it gave a lot of satisfaction to his admirers, relatives and well-wishers.
�I have come to a stage where awards do not mean much to me, and anyway I have been fortunate to have received quite a few honours, including the Saraswati Sanman. For a writer, it is his or her creations that provide the greatest pleasure. Writing has been my obsession as well as the greatest contentment,� he said.
Jadav Payeng, the man who single-handedly created and nurtured a forest on a barren sand-bar on the Brahmaputra, said that he was happy to receive the award on behalf of his fellow men in Assam as also the countrymen.
Underscoring the need for transforming conservation of nature and wildlife into a mass movement, Payeng said that given India�s enduring traditions of revering nature in its diverse manifestations, it would be in the fitness of things if India took the lead in conservation.
�We all need to work together to effect the desired changes in the way our environment is managed, more so because we are witnessing an unprecedented crisis in the status of our natural environment which also constitutes our priceless natural heritage,� he said.
