BWI: “Give Delhi a Chance to Breathe”—TERI’s Message on Earth Day 2009

Press release from Business Wire India
Source: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI)
Wednesday, April 22, 2009 04:10 PM IST (10:40 AM GMT)
Editors: General: Consumer interest, Environment, Social issues; Business: Advertising, PR & marketing, Education & training, Energy companies, Media & entertainment
Release no: 19749
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"Give Delhi a Chance to Breathe"-TERI's Message on Earth Day 2009
Students Across 10 Cities and 780 Schools in India, Qatar, Oman and Singapore made 1 Lac 30 Thousand Paper Bags to Create Awareness and Say No to Plastics

New Delhi, Delhi, India, Wednesday, April 22, 2009 -- (Business Wire India) -- Earth Day is observed all over the world on 22nd April to reminds us of our responsibility to protect our planet. This year, TERI (The Energy and resources Institute) and MoEF (Ministry of Environment and Forests) with Hewlett-Packard and Big FM-92.7 celebrated the day around its theme: "Give Delhi a chance to breathe". 300 students from 35 schools from Delhi- NCR region attended the function at the National Science Centre. Present on the occasion were Dr Vibha Dhawan, Executive Director, TERI, Dr Jayshree Sharma, NCERT among others.

Addressing the enthusiastic students, Dr. Vibha Dhawan, said "We should remember each day of what we receive from our mother earth and respect her contribution in our lives. Earth is our mother and we should not mistreat her. This year's slogan is apt as we notice gradual changes around ourselves that are increasing our problems like traffic jams, scarcity of water. This is happening mainly due to our negligence. As the decision makers of tomorrow, you have the responsibility of spreading awareness about such issues. The nation wide paper bag campaign shows that they are far more pretty and elegant than plastic bags and such activities should be done more often to keep the creativity alive in all of you. I am glad that we got such an overwhelming response to this campaign and am happy to announce that we have crossed our target of making 1 lac paper bags and will be holding this campaign each year."

In the week of 15- 21 April, students participated in various competitions- poster making, quiz, designing sunboards and distributed 10,000 badges with Earth Day messages on it. A nationwide campaign-paper bag making was conducted and 780 schools from 10 cities participated in the same. School, colleges, institutes and individuals from Andhra Pradesh, Assam ,Delhi, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Goa Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Mizoram, Nagaland, UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand, Pondicherry Punjab etc and also schools from Singapore, Oman and Qatar participated. Around 1 lac 30 thousand paper bags were made through this mammoth effort.

Reuse is vital to preserving our environment - but that fact alone is nothing without the education and understanding needed to put the concept into action. Paper bag is the best alternative to poly bags. The students moulded old newspapers, scraps, magazine pages, etc. into attractive bags of all shapes and sizes. Since the theme of this campaign was 'Be Natural', the emphasis was on using only natural adhesives like mashed rice and wet flour, natural strings made out of jute and coir, and natural objects for decoration such as dry leaves and flowers. These bags will be given to shopkeepers in nearby localities asking them to shun plastic bags.

The Earth Day celebrations were organised at the National Science Centre, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The programme included skit performance by Sanskriti School and group songs by The Banyan School and Queen's Mary School. An exhibition of the selected photographs was also organised on the occasion. Winners of various competitions-poster, photography and quiz were duly awarded with certificates and cash prizes. The winning posters and photographs are displayed at the Rajiv Chowk, Vishwavidyala and Kashmeri Gate Metro stations. Following are the winning schools in each of the category:

Photography:

I st- Air Force Bal Bharti School, Lodhi Road and Chiranjiv Bharti School, Palam Vihar

IInd- St. Mary's School, Safdarjang Enclave

IIIrd- Gyan Bharti School, Saket

Poster Making:

Ist- Amity International School, Vasundhara

IInd- GD Salwan Public School, Rajinder Nagar

IIIrd- Father Agnel School, Gautam Nagar

Quiz:

Ist- Amity International School, Noida

IInd- Father Agnel School

IIIrd- Amity International School, Pushpa Vihar

About EEA (Environment Education Awareness)

Environment Education and Awareness area at TERI has dedicated itself to the task of creating an informed group of young citizens who will become the leaders of tomorrow and for whom environmental issues will become a part of their daily lives. It has conducted several projects on issues related to water, air, climate change, energy, etc. It develops and disseminates resource material (both print and electronic) for effective communication, besides networking with like-minded institutes, for wider outreach at the national and global platform.

The area targets mainly students and teachers and through them the community. To bring about a spirit of participatory competition for addressing environmental concerns innovative projects and activities are undertaken such as conferences, interactive sessions and discussions. An annual international environmental examination - GREEN Olympiad for middle and senior school students is conducted in association with the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Govt. of India that culminates in the TERRAQUIZ, the first environmental quiz programme for school students on Indian television. School Health and Hygiene programme is being carried out in the government schools of Haryana (Gurgaon, Sonepat and Panipat) and Delhi under the Yamuna Action Plan - II. Workshops, seminars, training programmes and educational field trips on environmental issues are organised for teachers and students at regular intervals.

To know further details about the programme, contact eea@teri.res.in


CONTACT DETAILS
Rajiv Chhibber, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), 24682100, extn - 2324, 9810426698, rajivc@teri.res.in
Dalvinder Kaur, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), 24682100, extn - 2269, 9891377700, djkaur@teri.res.in

KEYWORDS
CONSUMER, ENVIRONMENT, SOCIAL, MARKETING, EDUCATION, ENERGY, MEDIA

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