Not many of us know about the Earth Hour but it is the largest environmental event in history, recurring every year. Hundreds of millions of people, businesses and governments unite with each other to support the Earth Hour by minimizing the energy consumption for one hour (8:30pm – 9:30pm).

To urge support from Udaipurites, Officer-in-Charge of WWF Arun Soni has met the ADM City, Mohammad Yaseen Pathan for the upcoming global event of Earth Hour on 31st March 2012. He, with the medium of city administration appealed to the people of Udaipur to support the cause by one hour power-cut on Earth Hour.

It was in the year 2007 when Earth Hour was incepted in Sydney, Australia by W.W.F (World Wide Fund for Nature), when they called for a one hour non-compulsory power cut to raise awareness about the need to take action on climate change (Global Warming). 2 lakh residents and 2,000 business persons responded to this cause.

Since then, it spread like a union bond between various nations around the world, and as a result of it in 2011; Earth Hour 2011 was the largest ever voluntary action for the environment. 5,251 cities and towns in 135 countries and territories in all the seven continents contributed for the cause. It had an estimated reach of 1.8 billion people across the globe, that year.

It was also a remarkable success in India, when in 2009, 56 cities with 5 million contributors and in 2011; 131 cities with 6 million contributors took a stand for it. Indian cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar is now involved with W.W.F, India and has promised his full cooperation to the voluntary event.

In Udaipur, more than 30 Institutions, universities, Government Offices and Private Corporations supported the cause including Hotels Sheraton, Taj Lake Palace, City Palace and others. More than 300 families from Goverdhan Vilas, Udaipur supported Earth hour 2011, making it an initial success in Udaipur.

Earth Hour is organized on every year on the last Saturday of March for one hour, starting from 8.30 PM to 9.30 PM. Its main motive is to promote the awareness of Climate Change around the world and to “to halt and reverse the destruction of our environment.”

This year on 31^st March, 2012, we would be in the radius of Earth Hour. It is not mandatory for us to participate in it, but we can contribute our bit towards the cause, as it’s worth contributing to.