Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Sunday (June 14, 2026) recalled then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s “historic” address at the first UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, and said it is widely considered to be one of the four milestones in the global discourse on the environment.

The former Environment Minister said today, 54 years ago, Indira Gandhi delivered her truly historic and perhaps most memorable address at the first UN Conference on the Human Environment that had begun in Stockholm on June 5th, 1972, which is marked as World Environment Day.

She was only one of two heads of government to speak on the occasion, the other being the host Prime Minister, Mr. Ramesh, said on X.

“Indira Gandhi’s speech is widely considered to be one of the four milestones in the global discourse on the environment, the others being the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962, Paul Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb in 1968, and MIT/Club of Rome’s The Limits to Growth in early 1972,” he said. It is still universally recalled, quoted and published, Mr. Ramesh said.

“The speech ends by her recalling Verse 35 from the Prithvi Sukta in the Atharva Veda, which, in translation, reads ‘What of thee I dig out, let that quickly grow ever, /Let me not hit thy vitals or thy heart’.” What is, however, not generally known is that her speech, which circulated at the Conference, also contained the full text of Ashoka’s Major Pillar Edict, which is without doubt the very first environmental proclamation by a ruler anywhere in the world, Mr. Ramesh pointed out.

Given that she was speaking at the height of the Vietnam War she also drew the world’s attention to Ashoka’s Rock Edict where he deeply regrets the carnage of his military conquests, he said.

“She drew pointed attention to the environmental havoc being created by the war in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia,” Mr. Ramesh said.

“The link to the speech as circulated at Stockholm that contains these Edicts, missed in all the subsequent published versions including the official volumes of her speeches as PM, is here,” Mr. Ramesh said, sharing the text link to the speech.