World Environment Day was celebrated in Dharamshala at Gandhi Smriti Vatika with a programme organized by Dharamshala Environment Society. A gathering of around 250 people from local schools, Government offices, the Government College, the Rotary club and Tibetan organizations as well local NGOs including Nishtha and Jagori came together, all showing their concern for the environment.
The schoolchildren displayed interesting and well made banners and posters showing pictures and slogans on environmental matters: waste disposal, global warming, pollution and so on. Some of the older children delivered well rehearsed speeches and poems on a wide range of issues, attempting to raise awareness about the vulnerability of our environment.
Dr Kalia spoke about the wide varieties of pollution we have to face in this modern age: noise pollution, air pollution, water pollution and electronic waste pollution. He suggested people should plant a tree on their loved ones birthdays and name it after them and look after it, treating it like a family member.
Mohinder Kumar, Nishtha Project Officer, explained the awareness raising projects designed and operated by Nishtha in Rakkar village. He underlined the importance of conveying the message to young children so they grow up with an inbuilt understanding of how to manage waste and the damage it does to the environment. It is up to each individual to properly dispose of their own waste. We should not wait for others to set up systems but start managing our problems ourselves.
Gaytri from Jagori shared the experience of the Jagori team who work with young children and women’s groups in villages through the district; how they teach them about managing waste and organic agriculture, ideas which are slowly taking root among the people.
Mohinder and local artiste Vijay Bhardwaj sang a song specially composed to a local folk tune for Nishtha environment programmes, which was very well received by the crowd.
The school children’s drawings were judged by the Principal of Dharamshala College (Rtd.) Lal Man Dogra, following which the rally marched up and down the main street as far as the war memorial shouting slogans. The result was that all the participating organizations agreed to form a District level committee to work in one direction together to pressure the local authorities to pay attention to the environmental degradation going on in our area.
