We have had a bit of radio silence on the blog the past days as most of us, and hopefully most of you, have been enjoying time with family during what for many of us is a holiday season. But even as many of us are celebrating the holidays, the movement is keeping on.
I was overjoyed to open up an email yesterday to learn about yet another incredibly beautiful 350 action in India led by our friends at Kids for Tigers, this one at the Royal College of Arts, Science and Commerce in Mumbai. The 350 photo action was at the conclusion of a 3 day festival all focused on the environment and including over 80 colleges from across the city. And the bicycles in the picture are of particular importance as the students decided it was essential to incorporate a demostration of solutions for how to get to 350 as well.
Read on for a more detailed report from Ayesha D’souza of Kids for Tigers…
The whole theme of the 3 day festival which was revolving around Environment and so the college had also invited Sanctuary to be a part of the whole event.
Kids for Tigers – The Sanctuary Tiger Program sponsored by the Tata Consulting Services, visited Royal College,Mira Road on the 18th,19th and 20th of December for their annual Gyan Manthan Academic festival. Around 80 colleges from all over the city came and participated in the various events. Their main attraction at the festival was Quest 20 which is a Science and Mathematics exhibition.
The departments of Mathematics, Microbiology, Biotechnology, Physics, and Chemistry displayed exhibits, most of which were focused on Nature awareness. Mathematics Topology projects involved the use of clay and paper pulp. The Chemistry Department highlighted Environmental issues whereas; Micro-Biotech departments placed biological remedies to toxic pollutants in the environment. Some of the projects included, bio degradation of harmful dyes, Ethanol production from pineapple waste , biorefrigeration, decomposition of plastic by a natural method grey water recycling etc.
The students of Royal College participated in the 350 movement on the final day of the festival by arranging themselves as the numbers 3 5 and 0 on their basketball court. They wanted to show a small solution to climate change by creating awareness of the use of bicycles over petrol/diesel fueled vehicles.
Professor Radhika D’souza, of the Department of Microbiology and head of the Nature club of the college sums it up by saying “We work for an educational institution where we instill values like the love for nature and compassion for wildlife. We hope that once they are out of college, they are capable of taking immediate actions against those that harm nature. Our area was full of mangroves but over the years we have seen them vanishing and in their places housing complexes have come up. The least we can do is conduct awareness rallies and campaigns spreading knowledge and our passion amongst others.”