School children participate in Van Mahotsav

PATNA

: Students of several city schools participated in the weeklong

Van Mahotsav

kick-started at Tarumitra Ashram on Monday.

Tarumitra volunteers and interns along with the students of St Michael’s High School, St Xavier’s College, Notre Dame Academy and Indirapuram Girls’ School among others took part in activities like taking aarti and applying tilak to the trees on the campus.

Tarumitra director Father Tony Pendanath said, “Van Mahotsav is celebrated all over India from July 1 to July 7 every year. Tarumitra also celebrates it every year to pay respect to Mother Earth.”

The students also delivered speeches on the occasion. They also participated in mehndi-making activity to mark the holy month of Shrawan, which will begin later this month. Each guest was presented with one neem sapling.

Pallavi Biswas performed a dance dedicated to Earth. “Nature has given us everything without demanding anything in return. All we can give the nature in return is silence. Many poets and poetesses visualized nature as an idol. It is our duty to save nature as we can see how alarming the situation has become and can be more dangerous in future,” she said.

Anamika Prasad of Notre Dame Academy sang ‘Aisa Desh Hai Mera’ song. Srija performed on ‘Bundan Bundan Barse Megha’. Swabhiman Group from Hajipur presented a nukkad natak on the theme of saving environment, population control and extending the green cover.

Dr Bhawana Shekhar, a poetess and writer, said: “Being brought up in a concrete city like Delhi, Van Mahotsav means a lot to us. I understood that human beings are born with pitri, dev and rishi debts. Nature has never demanded anything from us; that is why we use it without precautions.”