Switch off electricity for 5 minutes to mark World Earth Day 2025: Delhi CM Rekha Gupta's appeal to people

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta has appealed to people of Delhi to turn off the electricity for five minutes on April 22 to mark the World Earth Day 2025. While making this appeal, the CM urged people to take part in this initiative to save electricity and revive old bond with the environment.

“Namaskar, I am Rekha Gupta, CM of Delhi. When we were kids, we used to sleep on terraces in pleasant weather. We used to see stars. Today we have electricity, but we do not see stars. We have lost that affection for an environment that we used to have earlier,” Gupta said in an audio message forwarded by power discoms to consumers in the national capital.

Earth Day is an annual global event celebrated on April 22 to raise awareness about environmental issues and encourage people to take action to protect the planet. It's a day to celebrate Earth's natural resources, promote environmentalism, and demonstrate support for environmental protection.

"I, as Delhi CM, request you to please revive that bond with the environment. Let's switch off electricity for five minutes from 8 pm to 8:05 pm on April 22 to mark Earth Day and let the environment breathe. Save electricity and give new direction to our city, country, Jai Hind,” Gupta said.

This year, Earth Day marks its 55th anniversary with global activations aimed at mobilising a billion people worldwide to take transformative action for our planet's sustainable future.

Why is Earth Day Celebrated?

Earth Day Network, which is now known as EARTHDAY.ORG, is credited with establishing the day as an initiative to mobilise the environmental movement worldwide to address issues such as climate change, pollution and deforestation.

The first Earth Day was observed in 1971 on April 22, when the then UN Secretary-General U Thant held a special ceremony at UN Headquarters in New York.

What is the Earth Day 2025 Theme?

This year's Earth Day 2025 theme is “Our Power, Our Planet.” The idea is to focus on measures to achieve the‘triple clean electricity’ goal by 2030 using renewable energy. 

The day advocates protection of natural resources such as air, oceans, soil, ecosystems, wildlife, and human health by harnessing renewable sources of energy. 

Solar, wind, hydroelectric, geothermal, and tidal energy are in focus to create clean, inexpensive, and unlimited energy for the entire planet.