Environment is the buzzword

The Canadian High Commission recently organised an awards ceremony in he Capital for the winners of an All-India drawing and essay competition, which was held in December 2004. The competition dealt on the importance of environment conservation and issues, for students in the age group of 13 years to 16 years. The ceremony was held in the presence of Canada's High Commissioner to India, Lucie Edwards and environmentalist, Dr Jagmohan S Maini and the chief guest Lt Col Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore.The contest elicited 500 entries of drawing and 250 essays from 150 schools across the country. Thirty paintings and three award winning essays were exhibited at the India Habitat Centre in the Capital on the same day. The contest harped on the importance of environment conservation, factors causing depletion of natural resources, and how urbanisation has led to deforestation and natural disasters. While presenting the awards Edwards said: "We wanted to know what the Indian youth thinks about an important issue like environment protection. The children understood the idea, thought about it and put their ideas across very well." It was an enriching experience for students who thought about the problems and tried to find solutions. Maini stressed on the need for inculcating environmental ethics among children. Awards were given in three categories - for the schools who sent the maximum entries, individual awards in drawing and essay competitions. St John's International residential school, Chennai; Alembic Vidaylaya, Vadodara; Sprindales School, New Delhi receive the prizes for maximum entries. In drawing, Komal Ullal from St Joseph's convent, Mumbai got the first prize; Anoop Sharma of Tagore International, Jaipur got the second prize and Tanya Paul of Ryan International, Noida came third. In essay contest, Mallimalika Gupta of Jamnabai Narsee school, Mumbai bagged the first prize; Nivedita sudheer of New Horizon Public school, Banglore won the second prize and Shivani Aserkar got the third prize. The drawing in bright colours were eye catching, and handshake was a common symbol used by artists to strengthen their young, but mature ideas. Ullal's painting showed destruction and chaos because of environmental degradation, the negative aspects of pollution on one side and prosperity because of environment protection, on the other side. Sharma's painting showed pollution gripping the universe, and the handshake working for saving the environment. The artists presented water and air pollution and means to prevent it in their own way.