Tamil Nadu government signs MoU with the UK to set up botanical garden at Chengalpattu

The Environment department signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the United Kingdom to establish a botanical garden at Chengalpattu in collaboration with the Kew Gardens in London as part of a plethora of projects undertaken by the State government. "The MoU commits Kew to providing advice and expertise around landscape planning, plant collection development, and botanical garden management," the government stated in an official announcement.

Environment Minister Siva V. Meyyanathan and U.K. Minister of State for Climate Change Graham Stuart inaugurated the 'Roadmap for Green Indexing of Industries' for industrial decarbonisation in Tamil Nadu.

The UK Minister for Environment and Forest, Theresa Coffey, launched the UK Partnership for Accelerated Climate Transitions (UK PACT) mangrove project, which will be undertaken by Keystone Foundation, Nilgris. According to Supriya Sahu, Secretary for Environment, the initiative would especially improve the capacity of local people in the Nilgris, Cuddalore, and Coimbatore districts.

At another ceremony on Thursday, the State government launched green initiatives in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), including the "Tide Turner Plastic Challenge," a worldwide youth-led effort against single-use plastics.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael S. Regan, who is in Chennai for the G20 Ministerial Meeting, joined the students on a walk on Besant Nagar beach and conducted an experiment to measure the temperature and salinity of seawater samples as part of "Ocean Matters," an ongoing citizen science project organised by the US Consulate General Chennai in collaboration with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) to build capacity.