5th June: World Environment Day

World Environment Day(WED) is celebrated all around the world on 5th of June every year.  It was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972.  This day is celebrated to create awareness about our mother nature and to encourage people to take positive action to protect our earth.

First World Environment Day was celebrated in the year 1973 in Spokane, United States.  Spokane is in the state of Washington.  The theme for the first WED was "Only one Earth".  Since then it is hosted every year by different cities with different theme.  The theme for 2013 WED was "Think.Eat.Save" Reduce your food print and it was hosted by Mongolia.  According to UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted.  At the same time 1 in 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and many children die daily from hunger. India hosted 2011 WED and the theme was "Forests: Nature at your Service".

The above stamp was issued in the year 2005 by India for World Environmental Day.