Green Campus Movement
The idea of a green campus movement is deceptively simple. Creating a green educational campus not only makes a tangible environmental difference, it also educates those who are directly involved—the staff
Environment Education
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Go green' initiative
Standard Chartered Bank and Scope International partnered the Isha Foundation in
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Protectors of peacock, jumbo
Centre for Ecological Movement volunteers at Rajhat, in Hooghly, where they work to save the peacock Wildlife can be preserved only if people living close by are encouraged to lend a helping hand. Guided by this motto, the city-based Centre for Ecological Movement (CEMO), a consortium of NGOs and NGIs (non government individuals), has been working with villagers of Bankura and Hooghly to save elephants and peacocks. "Our objective is to fight poaching and preserve endangered species and their habitat by extending financial assistance to the local people and helping them manage their resources better,' said Purnima Dutta, the secretary of the centre, which had recently organised a two-day camp on the Army Territorial Ground to spread awareness about the environment. More than 20 schools participated in the "eco-jamboree', which included extempore speeches and skit contests on nature. The centre, with 50 registered members
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Park for energy awareness
North Bengal University (NBU) will soon take up a slew of projects to explore non-conventional sources of energy. At today's meeting of the executive council, the highest statutory body of the university, a proposal to set up an energy park in collaboration with West Bengal Renewable Energy Development Authority (WBREDA) was formalised. "The park will generate awareness among students and common people of the use of renewable energy sources and energy conservation techniques,' said Arunava Basumajumdar, vice-chancellor of NBU. "We have earmarked a plot adjacent to Akshay Kumar Maitreya Heritage Museum for the park. Alongside the heritage museum, which already gets a good number of visitors everyday, the park will be an added tourist attraction for this part of Siliguri,' said Basumajumdar. The vice-chancellor added that it had also been decided that solar heaters would be provided to students' hostels so that they could heat water. "We have also tied up with WBREDA for illuminating campus streets, using solar power,' said the vice-chancellor. A bio-mass power generator will also be set up, the vice-chancellor said. He added that renewable energy sources were the best alternatives to meet the additional energy requirements. A major study that the university will be taking up is on the water table. "With funds from the state government, we will be undertaking a major study on the water table in the hills and the effects of global warming on it,' Basumajumdar said.
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Message to save Earth
Environment crisis is deepening day by day and we must protect our environment. The same spirit of conservation of environment was displayed by the girl students of local Nutan College where a programme was organised on the occasion of Science Day. The main speciality of the programme was its uniqueness regarding celebrations. There was no noise, loud music but calmness in the atmosphere. This did not disturb anybody's studies too. The students propagated the message of protection of environment and also emphasized on saving the planet Earth from destruction. What do students say Bhanupriya says 'Our very existence depends on our planet Earth. It becomes our responsibility to save environment'. Pushpalata says 'The thing, which is required most is the awareness about how to save environment. With the ongoing pace of exploiting natural resources, that day is not far when we would reach the stage of exhaustion and severe crises.
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Youngsters to nudge seasoned policymakers on climate change
Educationists believe that children can often help adults see the road ahead. Climate change is one cause they hope children will take up. So when the British Council organised the first ever "Climate Change Champions' programme under the its "Low Carbon Futures Project', it school students it turned to. The project operates at two levels: working with selected networks to influence action at the corporate level and secondly working with a wider young audience to bring about extensive action. Twenty participants in the age group of 16-18 years were short-listed from over 500 applications received form across the four regions of India. Says Dr GS Gujral, Head Science, British Council, "This programme is meant to motivate the youth to play a key role in mitigating the effects that climate change is causing in India and worldwide. The 20 winners will engage in awareness programes at a local level, perhaps by organising a school network, set up an eco project or talk to important people in their community about bigger plans.' Of the 20 participants, three have been selected to represent India at the G8+5 summit at Kobe, Japan in May. Their role would be to interact with world leaders and thinkers and make them aware of the problem of climate change. Nidhi Patel of Vadodara, one of the three, believes that the possible solutions to climate change are by involving people at the grassroots level. "We need to realise that we are destroying our planet and if we do not react now, we will not be able to save it from destruction. The policymakers should be careful that the policies should percolate down to the lowest levels.' Jaswanth Madhavan from Chennai, another finalist, has already participated in many inter-school climate change competitions and believes that the inverted pyramid approach is the best way forward. "Every individual must try and make changes at a personal level and then think of educating the others,' says Madhavan. He practises rainwater harvesting at home and also has a passion for weather forecasting.
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Painting a green picture of clean world
Yours colourfully: Participants at the
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Watching birds & coming up with great figures
Ever wondered how many different kinds of winged friends share the city with us? Better still, how many species can one spot in a single day
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Forestry dept's eco-package for schools
School children can now look forward to environmental education through eco friendly parks as the State Social Forestry Department is all set to revamp the 29 nurseries spread across all districts of the state to convert them into national green corps parks. "In 2001, the forest ministers of all states in the country met at Coimbatore where they resolved to spread environmental education by conducting orientation for students. This was under the scheme National Green Corps,' said Prakash Thosre, director, Social Forestry, Maharshtra.
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National seminar on environment
Gargaon College, in collaboration with ONGC, Nazira, is organising a national seminar on
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Vadodara girl selected for int'l climate contest
Nidhi Patel of New Era Senior Secondary School has qualified as the finalist from west zone in the