Protecting our nature - the GreenLine meets our students

Oh, to be a Green Hero!

-Ms. Sunita D’Souza and Master Atharva Chaturvedi

All good things come to an end.  And so it was with the GreenLine team that conducted its last and final session on 15^th Jan 2013 with the students of St. Joseph’s High School, Wadala, for the academic year 2012 -2013.

Two students from St. Joseph's, Aditya Dubey and Vaibhav Dwivedi, gave an extraordinary start to this session by presenting a power-point presentation that mainly talked about the commendable greening tasks undertaken by the students and teachers of the school this scholastic year.  Fr. Savio Silveira, Ms. Devyani and Mr. Aristo from the GreenLine team took the stage thereafter. The theme of their presentation this time around was 'Biodiversity: Threats and Conservation.'  They together brought into focus the need to conserve the natural habitat of animals especially the endangered species and highlighted the threats faced by them

Fr. Savio began his session by recapitulating the discussion on the 'Flora and Fauna' in the world that were the topics of the earlier sessions.  He then spoke about 'Bio-diversity'.  Pictures of endangered animals such as like the Giant Panda, Red Panda, Gangetic River Dolphin, Asiatic Cheetah, Caracal, Gharial, Sloth, … were screened for the participants.  The IUCN (an organisation set up for the conservation of animals) works for this cause. 

Ms. Devyani and Mr. Aristo exhibited a diagram depicting the least imperiled, near threatened, endangered and critically endangered animal species (the Royal Bengal Tiger and the Striped Hyena). They discussed the reasons that make animals extinct and endangered. 

The following factors were stated - deforestation and habitat loss, destruction of wetlands (mangroves), poaching and wild life trade, invasive species - exotic species and pollution. There could be well - thought out solutions to save the endangered species of animals viz. ecological cycles, conservation projects, bio-diversity services, project Butterfly and project Green Zone. We can become part of the solution; each of us can become a Green Hero!   It is time we are action-oriented.  There have been and are various instances of children in India who have done outstanding work to create a Green Zone in their own homes and surroundings. These children have been presented with national or international awards.

We decided on three projects to be taken up in real earnest to save the endangered animals:

* PROJECT SPARROW - create awareness about the endangered species of sparrows; provide food for them in birdfeeders prepared by us.

* PROJECT BUTTERFLY - grow plants which attract butterflies in our balconies.

* PROJECT GREEN ZONE - grow plants to recreate the animal's natural habitat!

Truly, simple yet significant activities of a GREEN HERO to make the world a GREENER PLACE to live in!