Pioneer Achievement Award: Keshab C. Pradhan
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ARS Western Vice President Fred Whitney, Eastern Vice President
Len Miller, Keshab Pradhan, and ARS President Mike Stewart at the 2005 ARS Annual Convention. |
Keshab Pradhan and Britt Smith, the two living recipients
of the ARS Pioneer Achievement Award, at the home of Britt and Jean Smith in Kent, Washington. Photo by Fred Whitney |
Citation:
As Sikkim's Chief Forester, your early recognition that the unique forest and mountain resources in Sikkim of rhododendrons and alpine plants are finite made you a pioneer in environmental awareness. That these plants hold a special place in the history of temperate gardens prompted you to devise a system for small group visitation and discovery that ensured their protection. In this endeavor you became a pioneer in what today is known as eco-tourism.
Your leadership as Chief Secretary in the creation of alpine and rhododendron sanctuaries throughout Sikkim makes you a pioneer in environmental conservation and protection. Your effort will ensure continued access and study of a gene pool resource that was the foundation for the rhododendron hybrid as a plant for temperate European, North American and Antilles gardens.
Through your gracious personal hospitality to numerous groups of plant enthusiasts that have visited Sikkim over thirty some years you have gained the respect and thanks of a worldwide fellowship of rhododendron lovers. April 30, 2005, Victoria, British Columbia.