Odia Father-Daughter Scuba Divers’ Underwater Appeal to COP 28

Odia father-daughter scuba diving duo, Priyadarshee Panigrahi and 13-year-old Tisya Panigrahi have come up with a unique underwater appeal to the COP 28 global climate conference being held in Dubai.

This Dubai-based father and daughter are from Odisha’s Sambalpur district. Through their underwater message from a depth of over 70 feet, they wanted to draw the attention of the world leaders towards the immediate need for action to check the serious threat of climate change.

Priyadarshee and Tisya are certified advanced scuba divers. They went to the Maldives and dived 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 the Indian Ocean, surrounded by colourful corals and prolific marine life, father and daughter held placards with the COP28 UAE logo and the simple but powerful message of — ‘PLEASE UNITE. ACT. DELIVER’.

Unite.Act.Deliver is the theme of the COP28 conference, being held in Dubai from November 30 to December 12.

Priyadarshee and Tisya chose the Maldives because this tiny archipelago with around 1190 coral islands is the lowest-lying nation in the world. Rise in sea level due to global warming is a grave existential threat to the inhabitants of Maldives. Almost 80% of the Maldives could become uninhabitable by 2050, according to reports by NASA and US Geological Survey.

Priyadarshee is the head of the MENA (Middle East & North Africa) business of an Indian MNC and Tisya studies in grade 8 at Raffles World Academy, Dubai.

Tisya became Odisha’s youngest scuba diver in 2020 at the age of 10.