The Leela Palace Kempinski Bangalore has been recognised as the Best Eco-Friendly Five-Star Deluxe Hotel in India. The Union Home Minister, Mr Chidambaram, and the Minister for Tourism, Ambika Soni, presented the National Tourism Award (2007-08) on behalf of the Indian Government to Rajiv Kaul, Senior Vice President of The Leela Palaces, Hotels & Resorts at a ceremony in New Delhi last month.

The hotel, which is built in the traditional style of the royal palace of Mysore, is ISO14001 certified and is committed to developing and implementing environmental initiatives to decrease pollution and control the impact of the hotel on the surrounding area.

Charles de Foucault, General Manager of the hotel, said: “I want to thank everybody at the hotel who work continuously to improve our environmental credentials. Our Environment Leadership Team is helping us develop environment-friendly technologies that allow us to protect the environment and save money.”

Measures in place at the hotel include using eco-friendly chemicals such as herbal pesticides; using waste flowers and dry leaves as manure; treating waste water at the in-house sewage treatment plant and then using this to water the gardens; and practising cold fogging rather than thermal flogging for mosquito control.

Chairman of The Leela Group, Captain Nair, commented: “This prestigious recognition from my country’s Government is a special honour which I will treasure. I have always had a personal passion to beautify the environment, and recently The American Academy of Hospitality Sciences recognised my contribution as a visionary environmentalist with The Lifetime Achievement Award, and UNEP and the Emperor of Japan have honoured me with the title of Global Laureate for my environmental initiatives.”

The Leela Group has previously been recognised for its commitment to the environment with honours such as The Green Hotelier Award from the International Hotel and Restaurant Association, Paris; the PATA Gold Award for excellence in Corporate Environmental Programme; the V. P. Menon Award for environmental initiatives; the Maharana Udai Singh Award for distinguished services in the field of the environment; and the Corporate Environmental Achievement award from the 6th World Wilderness Congress.