Over 1,100 school students participated in a series of contests on environment organized by Navi Mumbai Environment Preservation Society (NMEPS) on Saturday, ahead of the World Wetlands Day to be observed on February 2.
The NMEPS culminated the contests with a virtual seminar. “We are rampantly damaging our environment in the name of development, without realizing the likely impact of the destruction. Our annual Seminar is an initiative to make young citizens aware of environment issues and for creating a better tomorrow by just taking small steps,” said V.K Gandhi, President, NMEPS.
Stalin Dayanand of Vanashkti - the chief guest at the seminar underscored the importance of students and the youth remaining alert about the environment damages in their areas and asking their parents to raise their voice. He said, "The grassroot level involvement is a must to ensure that environmental damaged is controlled in time for the wellbeing of the present and future generations," added Stalin.
Media professional and director of NatConnect Foundation B N Kumar who originally mooted the idea of getting the tag of Flamingo City for Navi Mumbai said the officials must walk-the-talk and ensure that flamingo destinations – wetlands of the city – are protected and conserved. On a query on the importance of mangroves, Kumar suggested a mangrove boat ride, in association with the Forest department, for school children from Airoli. "They could also get a glimpse of the flamingos in the Thane Creek," he said adding, "Navi Mumbai, which has been winning top rankings in the Swachh Bharat survey, has all the potential of topping in environment care, given the rising public awareness and involvement," Kumar remarked.
NMEPS announced the formation of its Youth Wing of NMEPS. Youngsters interested in contributing to the efforts towards environment causes may connect via the Facebook page of NMEPS.
The event also saw the final round of the elocution contest with the students from private as well as civic schools presenting their ideas on wetlands and mangroves. The final round and the contest was won by Ayush Tiwari of DPS Nerul for English, Lakshta Deshmukh of DPS Panvel for Hindi and Jagruti Suryavanshi of NMMC School No 42 from the Marathi language segment.
Students of Sunshine School and Skills and Ability School enthralled the participants with their video collage. The loudest cheers were reserved for the video clips of these schools for Special Children.
In the Annual Environment Quiz organized jointly by TERI and NMEPS, Yash Arya of DPS Nerul, and Kanisha Rawat of DAV School Nerul emerged winner and runner up respectively.
A ‘Wet Waste Management Project Report’ competition was also held on the occasion and the winner was Siddhi Yadav of DPS Panvel.
A video documentary on ‘Birds of Wetlands’ was played on the occasion with stunning pictures by Satish Dabral and poetic voiceover by Vishuddhi Gupta.
