The green crusader of India

The future of the planet lies in young hands. That is the belief that has driven the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, to launch the National Green Corps (NGC) project to bring about greater awareness among school children who, it is felt, will be the true harbingers of conservation efforts.

Prakash Thosre/ Photo credit: Huned Contractor/ OWSA

In Maharashtra, the NGC movement is being led by the Directorate of Social Forestry in collaboration with the Institute of Environment Education and Research, Bharati Vidyapeeth University.

In a short span of just three years ever since Prakash Thosre (IFS) was roped in to spearhead the project, Maharashtra has come to occupy a place among the top three states in terms of impact and value additions.

Thosre is a Science graduate with a degree in law and belongs to the 1977 batch of the Indian Forest Service. He has worked in various capacities at Alibaug, Mumbai, Amravati, Akola, Nashik and Pune and travelled across the Melghat region for seven years, covering about 175,000 kms.

Along with presenting papers at national and international conferences, he is the author of a book on the wildlife of Maharashtra and was instrumental in curbing the serious problems created by leopards in Junnar when he was the Chief Conservator of Forests. He is now the Director, Social Forestry Department as also Mission Director, National Bamboo Mission.

Excerpts from the interview:

OneWorld South Asia: What led to setting up the National Green Corps project in India?

Prakash Thosre: In 2002, a ministerial level meeting led to the drafting of the Coimbatore Charter that primarily outlined how young children could be involved in the task of conserving our flora and fauna through the establishment of eco-clubs in schools at urban, rural and tribal levels. It began with the target of setting up such clubs in 100 schools of each district of the country. Now the number has been upscaled to 250 schools.

The objectives of the NGC project are to provide environmental education opportunities for school children, utilise the unique position of school children as conduits for creating awareness in society at large, facilitate children’s participation in decision-making in areas related to environment and development, bring children into direct contact with the environmental problems facing the society they live in and make them think of solutions and to involve children in action-based programmes related to the environment.

In Maharashtra, the project was first managed by the Directorate of Education but I was asked to take over in 2006 and bring it under the fold of the Directorate of Social Forestry.

OWSA: But why is the focus only on children?

PT: Changing the attitudes of 100 crore people is not going to be easy even though almost all of us are aware of how serious is the issue of environmental degradation and the urgency behind saving the planet for our forthcoming generations. The best way to do so is through children.

They have no vested interests. They are impressionable. They are our future. Also, they are the single most important influence in the family and today are bold enough to express their opinions. Therefore it is important to mobilise youngsters by instilling in them the spirit of scientific enquiry into environmental problems and goad them into finding solutions.

OWSA: How has this worked in Maharashtra?

PT: Our attempts have been to attract the participation of 8,900 schools spread across the state with a target of reaching out to more than 4 lakh students. The exercise has been tremendously successful so far and a small example should prove the point. We have started a summer project in schools wherein students are asked to collect seeds, especially of those plants and trees that are either fruit-bearing or are of medicinal use or can be used to prepare natural colours.

Last year, the collection was a whopping 40 metric tonnes. This just goes to show the high level of enthusiastic participation. Recently, prior to the Diwali festival, we requested children and their parents to spend a part of their budget for firecrackers on alternate products like mud forts, sweetmeats etc and this led to saving Rs 1.20 crore from going up in smoke.

OWSA: What are the various programmes launched to attract children towards eco-conservation?

PT: We have chalked out a wide variety of programmes to ensure maximum participation. This includes organising talks on environmental issues in schools, field visits to environmentally important sites, rallies and human chains on important days, street theatre, tree plantation drives, kitchen gardens, vermicomposting pits, re-cycling of paper, using old sarees to make bags, construction of water harvesting structures, maintenance of sacred groves, mobilising action against unsafe garbage disposal practices and so on.

More importantly, we have started an NGC Park project which is an interactive field-based teaching-learning facility. Under this initiative, special nature trails are being developed at each district under the jurisdiction of our department. These host butterfly gardens, medicinal plants’ garden etc. Each of these parks also has environment-oriented games to make learning fun.

We also use religious faiths, traditions and rituals as tools to create love for nature. Through a concept called ‘Shraddha Van’ we have undertaken massive plantations across the state. Some of these exercises have really caught on, such as tying a rakhi to a tree, making clay models of Lord Ganesh during the Ganpati Festival, immersing the statues in tanks instead of the rivers, using natural organic colours for Holi and observing every Saturday as a day for environmental preservation activities.

To ensure that their interest level does not drop, prizes and star ratings are awarded to the best performing eco-clubs on certain days of national importance. A calendar has also been prepared that marks environment-related days such as Water Conservation Day, Wetlands Day, etc. so that eco-clubs can organise their activities around such milestones in their journey to save the earth.

OWSA: What is the difference in impact between rural and urban children?

PT: Students in rural areas find it much easier to understand the values of the eco-system because their lives and the livelihoods of their parents depend on the environment in which they live. Meanwhile, students in urban schools are bolder when it comes to passing on the message of environment conservation.

For example, we recently appointed members of an eco-group to randomly interview people visiting the Rajeev Gandhi Zoo in Pune and were amazed to find that they had no inhibitions in doing so. One thing is certain though – children today are much more aware of environment-related issues and willingly participate in various programmes.

OWSA: What about the funding of this project?

PT: The government has sanctioned Rs 2,500 per school per year. The overall annual budget is Rs 1.70 crore and so impressive have the results been that the NGC project will be taken to a higher level in the coming years.

OWSA: How does an eco-club work?

PT: Each such club has about 30-50 children who have shown a marked interest in environment-related issues. The club is supervised by a teacher who has an affinity for environmental concerns. Each such club is then provided with a kit of resource material in the language of their preference apart from the grant of Rs 2,500 for organising different activities. There is a District Implementation and Monitoring Committee to supervise and organise training for the teachers and keep a watch on the implementation of the scheme. The motto is: ‘Think global, act local’.

OWSA: What next?

PT: I am personally writing a compendium that will be of use to those who will be chosen to spearhead this movement in the coming years. We don’t want this to turn out to be another short-term bureaucratic approach.

The compendium will act as a guide about how the programme was started and steered through various phases. This will be released along with two films, one which highlights the objectives and implementation of the NGC project and the other an elaborate interview of mine telecast by Doordarshan which is being re-edited with the inclusion of environment and project-related footage. The idea is to reach out to as many children, and even adults, as we can.

OWSA: How has been the performance of this project in other states?

PT: Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh have been doing really well and a special mention must be made of Delhi because of the personal interest taken by Chief Minister Sheila Dixit who organises nature walks every week and enthuses an increasing number of school students to take interest in the environment that surrounds them.