The President of India Pranab Mukherjee presented the Gandhi Peace Prize for the year 2013 to noted environmentalist leader of Chipko movement and Gandhian from Uttarakhand, Chandi Prasad Bhatt, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Tuesday. Speaking on the occasion, the President said, "We must always keep in mind that we are the trustees of the heritage of Mahatma Gandhi. As trustees, it is our sacred duty to preserve, protect and disseminate this heritage, which is truly a legacy of all humanity. In honouring Bhatt, we honour all those countless women and men who became trustees of nature and who through their embrace expanded our Swaraj." Praising Bhatt for his dedicated, tireless and invaluable work for the conservation of the environment, Mukherjee said, "Bhatt is a life-long Gandhian, devoted and far-sighted modern environmentalist of our time whose life has been his message. His work embodies a unique love, a love that has long since become universal. It is a love of nature and nature as encompassing entire creation. The Chipko movement started by him in 1973 followed the same method of peaceful and non-violent Satyagraha for the redressal of the legitimate rights of the hill people to collect wood and fodder and saving them from natural calamities owing to large scale deforestation. It highlights the unique responsibility of protecting creation that has been placed on human beings. The Chipko movement was and continues to be a movement of deep love. Love as enacted in the act of hugging trees. It highlights the unique responsibility of protecting creation that has been placed on human beings. It is a movement of love against pulverising greed." The President said in Gandhi's words he had no use for economics without ethics. By placing ethics at the heart of economics, Gandhi gave an idea whose significance the people have just begun to understand. Bhatt's movement is one of the finest examples of this idea of trusteeship. Through his work, Bhatt has reminded this nation and the world as a whole about its responsibility for the future as well, said Mukherjee. Born in 1934 in the Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, Bhatt founded the Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh at Gopeshwar in 1964 which later led to the Chipko movement. In the past Bhatt has been conferred with the Ramon Magsaysay Award for community leadership and the Padma Bhushan. Inspite of his age, he has remained active dispersing ideas and participating in debates on the environment, society and developmental issues.