Dubai: In a unique and eye-catching gesture, Odia father-daughter scuba diving duo of Priyadarshee Panigrahi and 13-year-old Tisya Panigrahi have issued an appeal to the COP 28 global climate conference being held in Dubai.
The Dubai-based father and daughter, who hail from Odisha’s Sambalpur, feel very strongly about the need to urgently act on climate change and wanted to draw the world’s attention to this imminent and serious threat.
Priyadarshee and Tisya, both certified advanced scuba divers, went to the Maldives and went around 70 feet deep on December 2 (UAE’s National Day) in the coral reefs near Sun Siyam Olhuveli resort in South Male Atoll.
Deep inside the crystal clear waters of Indian Ocean, surrounded by colourful corals and prolific marine life, father and daughter held placards with COP28 UAE logo and the simple but powerful message of — ‘PLEASE UNITE. ACT. DELIVER’.
Unite.Act.Deliver is the theme of COP28 conference – from November 30 to December 12 – which is the 28th global meeting of countries to agree on ways to address the climate change crisis, like limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius, helping vulnerable communities to adapt to effects of climate change and achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.
Priyadarshee and Tisya chose the Maldives because this tiny archipelago of about 1190 coral islands is the lowest-lying nation in the world, and hence, sea level rise caused by global climate change is a grave existential threat. Almost 80% of the Maldives could become uninhabitable by 2050, according to reports by NASA and US Geological Survey.
Priyadarshee is the head of MENA (Middle East & North Africa) business of an Indian MNC and Tisya is a grade 8 student of Raffles World Academy, Dubai.
Maldivian Hassan Yaaniu, a diving instructor with Sun Siyam Resort Olhuveli’s diving school, accompanied the father-daughter duo under sea as diving instructor and helped with the pictures.
Tisya, who became Odisha’s youngest scuba diver in 2020 at the age of 10, is the granddaughter of former Minister and Member of Parliament from Odisha, Late Sriballav Panigrahi abd educationist Late Sunanda Panigrahi. She also happens to be granddaughter of former Sambalpur MLA Dr Raeswari Panigrahi.
