EcoSikh Celebrates Five Years of Green Action at Washington DC Gala
"Dr. Rajwant Singh" rajwant@aol.com  
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The Sikh environmental organization marked its five-year anniversary with a night of entertainment, education, and inspiration.
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September 15, 2014; WASHINGTON, DC - 300 Sikhs joined to support Sikh environmental action around the world, led by EcoSikh, in a gala which marked the five-year anniversary of the organization. Event organizers stated that the event was the "largest gathering of Sikhs to come together to ensure the Earth's future." During the evening, funds were raised to help support the organization's environmental initiatives in Punjab, United States and other locations.
The star-studded event featured musical entertainment from Indian Idol's Devender Pal Singh from India, who flew from Punjab especially for the event, and renowned music composer, Shankar Tucker. Twenty-year-old Devender Pal enthralled the audience with his classical songs from Indian movies and sufi-style Punjabi numbers.
Suneet Singh Tuli, Chief Executive Officer of DataWinds Ltd., whose company created the world's most affordable tablet computer, gave the keynote address of the event.
Tuli appealed to all guests, and asked them to take concrete actions to make a positive difference in their communities.
"We cannot be quiet bystanders. We must right the wrong that we see. We are answerable to the future generations if we do not take care of Mother Earth. It is our responsibility," said Tuli.
Dr. Rajwant Singh, President of EcoSikh, said, "Punjab is facing dire ecological consequences due to over use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers in the land.
Punjab's rivers and groundwater are no longer safe for human consumption. All Punjabis are facing serious health challenges, unless this trend is reverted with full rigor.
Cancer is on the rise and radioactive toxicity is being reported.  It is critical that all Punjabis and particularly Sikhs make environment preservation their top agendas.
EcoSikh's main purpose is to highlight the Sikh teachings on the environment and also to inspire people to take action." He pointed out that forest coverage in Punjab is less than four percent and city of Amritsar has less than one percent forest cover. Dr. Singh appealed the community to help support environmental awareness and a tree plantation drive in Punjab.
"It's very inspiring to see both youth and adults here tonight," said EcoSikh North America Program Manager, Sumeet Kaur. "It is crucial to have an intergenerational audience. Our mothers and fathers care deeply about the environmental integrity of their homeland, but we must also charge Sikh youth with the responsibility to take green actions. The fact that we have many young people attending and volunteering means that young people will take control of their futures and rectify damages previous done to Mata Dharat Mahat."
Ravneet Pal Singh, South Asia Project Manager, appealed to the audience with his speech on environmental preservation and pointed out that often people blame developing countries for environmental degradation but it is the developed world which has caused havoc on many fronts. He added, "Birds, animals and fish in the oceans are part of the family and their well-being is equally important. We all need to leave positive carbon footprints so we leave this world livable and lovable for future generations."
SikhNet, a renowned Sikh cybercommunity website for news, events and online discussions was honored for their work in promoting the environmental agenda through their online network. Guru Amrit Singh of SikhNet praised EcoSikh's work and said, "[EcoSikh's] efforts are very important for all humanity and [Sikhnet is] happy to be part of this movement."
Tedi Pagg, a group of young Sikhs from DC area, Rajdeep Singh, Jujhar Singh and Gurvir Singh preformed their debut Punjabi song 'Rukh', a famous poem by late Punjabi writer Shiv Kumar Batalvi.
Dimple Sandhu, Outreach Director of the DC Chapter of EcoSikh, hosted the event.
In addition, the audience was entertained and challenged by EcoSikh's treasurer Manranjan Singh's humor and wit to take action toward nature preservation.
The event's green theme and stage decorations were created by Kawal Singh and table decorations by Preet Amrit Kaur.  Rhea Kaur Nandra and Aman Singh, two middle-school students, highlighted the youth involvement of collecting funds to plant trees in Amritsar.
Several young people have been engaged in reaching out to neighbors and friends to donate for tree plantation initiative and they were namely: Jagjot Kaur Battu, Hana Mangat, Japneet Kaur, Ramleen Kaur, Harleen Kaur,  Madhur Vinaik, Gurnoor Singh, Keerat Singh, Gurjit Singh, and Gursimar Singh. Guransh Singh designed the T-shirt for EcoSikh.
The night came to an end with another performance by Devender Pal Singh, who engaged the crowd directly by dancing with guests on the dance floor. Harjot Singh accompanied him on Dhol. Devender Pal Singh also picked the winning raffle ticket for a free round trip ticket to India, provided by Air India. One of the main musical highlights of the night was when Singh, Tucker, and Sehejneet Kaur of Potomac, MD performed a rendition of "O Re Piya / Rolling in the Deep," an original song mash-up by Shankar Tucker that has garnered over 3.6 million views on YouTube. They were accompanied by Tarnpreet Singh from California.
The event and EcoSikh is largely supported by volunteers: Dimple Kaur Sandhu, Ramandeep Singh, Harmeet Singh Sandhu, Manpreet Singh, Sehejneet Kaur, Guransh Singh, Gita Pabla, Meenu Nandra, Amar Trivedi, Gavinder Billing, Manranjan Singh Chowdhary, Archna Bhatia, Baljit Kaur Ahuja and many more.