World has to combat global warming as it is seeking to do with terrorism, says PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the world needs to combat the ill-effects of climate change in the same way as it is combating terrorism.

"The world has to combat the ill-effects of climate change on the same level as combating terrorism," Prime Minister Modi said at a civic reception here.

"People living in small islands are scared of survival due to global warming. It is the world's responsibility to work on climate change," he added.

Concerned about the adverse effects of global warming, he said, "We are from a country that refers to a river as mother. We aren't taught to destroy the environment. We understand your concerns."

"We are modernizing the railways, because efficient public transport will reduce global warming and it will benefit you too," he added.

Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister was accorded a rousing civic reception by the expatriate Indian community here that was similar to the reception that he had received at New York's Madison Square Garden when he visited that city in September last year.

An estimated three-and-half-thousand expatriate Indians, greeted the visiting Prime Minister with loud cheers, clapping of hands, and slogans such as "Modi, Modi" and "Vande Mataram", as he began to address them from the podium at the event.

Greeting the audience with the Gujarati salutation of "Kemcho", Prime Minister Modi said, "Nature might have separated us, but it can never part our hearts, which are connected. Science says India and Seychelles were a part of the same land a thousand years ago, and I believe that the world is one family, and people who have been brought up with this belief, can never be separated by geographical barriers."

Prime Minister Modi embarked on his five-day, three-nation visit to Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka on Tuesday.