GUWAHATI, April 8 – As part of its nationwide ‘Green Governance’ campaign, WWF-India’s Assam and Arunachal Pradesh State Office, in association with Army School, Narangi, organised a two-day environment education programme in the school campus on April 4 and 5.
The main objective of the workshop was to enhance the knowledge base of the teacher and student community on environment education to a higher level of understanding and to facilitate cooperation between WWF and the Indian Army.
Under Green Governance – a joint endeavour of WWF and the Army – a series of environment education programmes would be held in some select Army schools, Sainik schools and Military schools across India.
Eminent environmental scientist, Prof. Dulal Chandra Goswami gave a detailed presentation on global environmental changes due to climate change. He expressed concern on the vulnerability of the rich biodiversity of the North-east due to the rapidly changing climatic conditions induced by anthropogenic factors.
Prof Goswami also expressed concern over the retreating glacier of the Himalayas due to increase of atmospheric temperature.
Terming the north-eastern region as one of the global biodiversity hotspots, Dr. Pranab Bujarbaruah elaborated on the biodiversity found in the natural landscapes of the Eastern Himalayan region. He also described the potential of the region in terms of valued genetical resources like important medicinal plants, rare orchids and other economically important medicinal plants.
Earlier, initiating the proceedings, Dr. Surajit Baruah, State coordinator, WWF-India, lauded the efforts of the Army in building green capacity in educational institutions. He briefly spoke about the various conservation programmes of WWF-India in various States including the North-east.
Dr. Jayanta Sarma of Nagaon Girls’ College gave a detailed presentation on environmental orientation in education at all levels of formal and informal education. He also dwelt on the intricacies of environmental education with environmental sciences and environmental studies.
Describing the significance of the International Year for Planet Earth, Prof. Arup Kumar Misra of Assam Engineering College appealed to the teachers to educate the students on the various aspects of Earth sciences. He also stressed the need for creating awareness on students and urged them to take part in events like National Children Science Congress. He also spoke on the Global warming and its impact on the environment.
Dr. Hridip Sarma of the Dept of Biotechnology, Gauhati University gave a presentation on the role of biotechnology for a better environment. He mentioned about the application of biotechnology in controlling many environmental and public health problems like pollution, various diseases.
