3 state schools excel in green activities

KOZHIKODE: Three schools in the state are in  the list of 20 schools selected by the national Paryavaran Mitra programme under the Centre for Environment and Education (CEE), Allahabad, for their outstanding pro-green educational pursuits.

The schools are Podavoor AUP school, Kasargod, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Wayanad, and tribal LP school, Nedumangad, Thiruvananthapuram.  A team from the CEE had visited the three schools to film their activities and achievements. The documentary on their green education activities will be screened in schools across the country.

The AUP school  is the only one in South India bagging twice the Paryavaran Mitra Puraskar. The students of the school have successfully undertaken activities in biodiversity conservation, energy and water conservation and waste management.

“It is another feather in the cap of the school which has bagged several national and state-level awards for nature and energy conservation over the last many years,”  said Mr K.M. Anilkumar, a teacher in the school. The school premises are plastic-free. “As part of the ‘Vazhiyorathanal programme,’  students planted trees on both sides of the road and conserved them. Three sacred groves in the region also were protected by them,” Mr Anilkumar said.

Plastic eradication from Pookkote lake premises and Wayanad ghats, studies  on vanishing animal and tree species, drip irrigation using plastic bottles and paddy farming and conservation of rare paddy varieties helped the Wayanad Navodaya school  figure in the list.     

“It was the series of meticulous activities conducted during the last many years that helped us  get recognition from the  Paryavaran Mitra team,”  said Ms C.V. Santhi, principal, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Lakkidi.  “Students from our schools have already bagged recognition from the CEE,”  she added.