Indira Gandhi prize for Wangari Maathai

NEW DELHI: Nobel laureate and Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai will be conferred this year's Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development for her outstanding contribution to humanity.

This was announced by Delhi Chief Minister and Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust Secretary Sheila Dikshit on Sunday.

Maathai, 66, is a Kenyan environmental and political activist. She has spent many years in the service of poor and underprivileged and worked for the protecting environment.

Maathai, president of Economic, Social and Cultural Centre of African Union, was instrumental in the environment protection movement in African continent and was in the forefront of planting millions of saplings at the risk of arrest, Dikshit said announcing the award.

She won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace" and was the first African woman to receive the award.

She also served as assistant minister for environment and natural resources in the government of President Mwai Kibaki between January 2003 and November 2005.