Ridhima Pandey

WHO IS RIDHIMA PANDEY?

This is the story of a young girl who believed in standing up for what is right. This is the story of a girl who who believed in fighting for change, who believed in fixing things and making life better for herself, for her family, and for others. This is the story of Ridhima Pandey.

Ridhima lived in a northern part of the country of India called Uttarakhand. Over 10 million people live in this region with a rich history – its name means Land of the Gods due to its importance to Hindus, and it lies close to the Himalayan mountains near the border with Tibet and Nepal.

START TO ACTIVISM

Uttarakhand had major environmental disasters – the most devastating occurred on June 16, 2013. Heavy rainfall caused major flooding and landslides leading to over 1000 deaths and many more people were stranded from roads that were washed away or blocked by debris.

When environmentalists came to Uttarakhand to figure out what went wrong and why there were so much damage, they concluded that climate change had a major impact – particularly green house gases and spray can emissions. They also found that roads had been built poorly and places where water should had flown freely in rivers were greatly restricted leading to more flooding and more landslides. Climate change and poorly planned building caused the disaster.

Haridwar and the River Ganges

Haridwar, Ridhima's home town, has its own set of challenges. The town is on the banks of the Ganges and its people depend on the river for their livelihoods. High temperatures cause droughts that threaten the Ganges river in Haridwar by lowering water levels. The rainy season causes heavy rains leading to the danger of flooding in the Ganges.

While the devastating rainstorm in Haridwar and the resulting disastrous flood greatly affected Ridhima, the pollution of the Ganges River also bothered her. As a young child, she regularly found statues, clothes and plastic on the river banks. These were left behind by pilgrims after their prayers to the river goddess!

PLASTICS ARE A PROBLEM

Plastics have become a huge source of the climate change problem. Plastics larger than 2 inches were entangling, choking, and killing millions of aquatic animals every year. Plastics floating on ocean surfaces may also affect surface temperatures and cause unanticipated climate change effects.

Besides these effects, smaller pieces were further contaminating the water systems. And plastics were eaten by a wide variety of fish and other forms of water life like plankton, fish, and mollusks. And if fish eat them, and we eat the fish, then these plastics end up inside of us and that can not be healthy.

All of these problems spurred Ridhima to action.

RIDHIMA'S MISSION and PHILOSOPHY

Ridhima made international news in 2017 when she was only 9 years old. With the help of her father, she filed a lawsuit in the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against the Indian government for failing to take action on climate change.

She highlighted the growing concern over pollution and environmental degradation in the country. Ridhima argued that India is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate problems, such as floods, erratic rainfall, and sea level rises and asked the court to order the government to create a national climate recovery plan. The NGT dismissed her plea. But Ridhima took her plea to the Indian Supreme Court where it is still waiting for a hearing.

UNITED NATIONS

Then in September 2019, 11-year-old Ridhima joined a group of 16 pioneering children from around the world, and presented an official complaint at the United Nations Climate Action Summit.

Ridhima along with the other young activists, was not satisfied with the way their countries’ governments were dealing with the urgent environmental crises.

Their complaint said that governments’ failure to tackle the climate crisis was a violation of child rights. The 16 children created their own website - #ChildrenvsClimateCrisis.