National

Buddhadeb votes for Sunderbans and Ganga as global wonders

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee cast his vote here on Monday to nominate the Sunderbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest, and the river Ganga as two of the seven new global wonders of nature.

Sunderbans Development Minister Kanti Ganguly was also present. “The Chief Minister took the first step and we request people from both West Bengal and across the country to vote for the Sunderbans and the Ganga to enlist them in the seven new natural wonders’ list,” Mr. Ganguly said.

The global voting platform, which is conducting the poll, is promoted by the New7Wonders Foundation that included the Taj Mahal in its list of seven man-made wonders last year.

The foundation was set up by Swiss-born Canadian filmmaker-explorer Bernard Weber.

The platform selects the wonders on the basis of nomination committees in each country and only one nomination from each country is finalised in the last lap of the race.

The Ganga was at the seventh position while the Sunderbans was tenth, out of the total 77 nominations.

The results will be declared in 2011.

Mr. Ganguly said that a nomination committee from Bangladesh had approached the State government to support the Sunderbans, as the forests cover vast areas of both India and Bangladesh. “A nomination committee has been set up on our side also to support the nominations and urge more people to vote for them,” he added.

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