Grand finale of BNHS Environment Day celebrations

Updated on: Tuesday, June 07, 2011

The four-day long celebrations by BNHS in the run up to the World Environment Day (WED) culminated with the launch of the book “Green Guide for Teachers” in English and Marathi at the hands of former Deputy Governor of Reserve Bank of India, Usha Thorat, who is now the vice president of BNHS. This book, which is meant to facilitate environment education in an interesting manner, will be distributed free of charge to schools and colleges. It has been created with the support of Sir Dorabji Tata Trust (English version) and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Environment Improvement Society (Marathi version). Earlier, BNHS had organised a three-day exhibition on “Mumbai’s Environment” at Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus and Churchgate railway station and a seminar on “importance of trees” as a part of its WED programmes. The exhibitions were visited by nearly 8, 000 people.

Importance of eco-system services

The book was launched at the BNHS Conservation Education Centre (CEC) in Goregaon on June 5 – World Environment Day. Speaking on the occasion, Thorat said, “Humans get various eco-system services such as clean air and clean water from nature. The normal forces of economy do not recognise these services, which are so vital for our survival.”

Environment Education made Interesting

It has been seen that although environment education has been made a mandatory subject in schools and colleges, it has failed to have the desired impact on the target audience – youngsters. Environment education has to be made interesting, along with a practical experience on the field. The new book in English and Marathi, which is a resource manual for teachers, addresses this need to make environment education interesting. It explains the concepts in such a way that one can relate to it perfectly. This book will be distributed free of charge to schools, colleges, libraries and other educational institutes in Maharashtra. The book will directly help students to make meaningful and practical environmental projects as a part of their curriculum.

The book features the following points:
- Important and interesting facts and figures and trivia about flora and fauna
- National parks and sanctuaries in India, their importance, our desired code of conduct when visiting them and their legal status
- Threatened flora and fauna
- Illegal trade of wild flora and fauna and the way in which we can stop it
- Environmental problems faced today such as climate change, pollution, destruction of natural resources, energy issues and waste disposal
- The role of India’s ancient eco-friendly culture in conservation today
- Interesting ways to connect with nature such as bird watching, nature trails, insect study, nurturing trees, vermi-composting and creating hand-made paper
- Our green duties

Grand finale of BNHS Environment Day celebrations

More Education news