Current Programmes

9. National Green Corps Programme

Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India has initiated National Green Corps (NGC) programme for implementation through the mechanism of Eco-Clubs set up in schools from Class V-XII all over the country. Under this scheme 250 schools have been selected from each district. Each school is being provided financial aid of Rs. 2,500/- per year. Besides, trainings and retrainings are conducted for Incharge-teachers and resource material on environment aspects is provided to each school. Objectives of the scheme are :-

·         To make children understand environment and environmental problems.

·         To provide environmental education opportunities for school children.

·         To utilize the unique position of school children as conduits for awareness of the society at large.

·         To facilitate children’s participation in decision making in areas related to environment & development.

·         To bring children into direct contact with the environmental problems facing the society they live in and make them think of solutions.

·         To involve children in action based programmes related to environment in their surroundings.

Each NGC school has constituted eco-clubs of 30-35 students to take up environment awareness activities under the supervision of eco-club incharge teacher. In all 5000 schools in Punjab are covered under this programme. Schools are suggested to take up following activities:

·      Organise seminars, debate, lectures & popular talks on environmental issues in the school.

·      Field visits to environmentally important sites including polluted and degraded sites, wildlife parks, etc.

·      Organise rallies, marches, human chains and street theater at public places with a view to spread environmental awareness.

·      Action based activities like tree plantation, cleanliness drives both within and outside the school campus.

·      Grow kitchen gardens, maintain vermi-composting pits, construct water-harvesting structures in school, practice paper recycling, etc.

·      Prepare inventories of polluting sources and forward it to enforcement agencies.

·      Organise awareness programmes against defecation in public places, pasting posters in public places and to propagate personal hygiene habits like washing hands before meals, etc.

·      Maintenance of public places like parks, gardens both within and outside the  school campus.

·      Mobilise action against environmentally unsound practices like garbage disposal in unauthorized places, unsafe disposal of hospital waste, etc.

·      Celebrate two environmentally important days in a befitting manner.

Punjab State Council for Science & Technology (PSCST) organized a 3 days training programme for Master Trainers of Punjab & Chandigarh at Golden Jubilee Conference Hall, Panjab University, Chandigarh from January 29-31, 2008 with the support of Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India. In all 80 Master Trainers (4 from each district) from Punjab and 4 Master Trainers from Chandigarh participated in the training. Eminent experts delivered lectures covering environment issues ranging from state of air and water resources, environmental degradation due to pollution from anthropogenic and other activities, biodiversity issues, climate change, depletion of ozone layer, simple ways of testing water quality using water quality testing kit, etc. Entire programme was divided into Inaugural Session and six Technical Sessions. These Master Trainers will provide training to 250 eco-club In-charge Teachers in each district.

Click here to download list of NGC Schools of Punjab

World Environment Day:

World Environment Day is celebrated all over the world on 5th June.  It provides an opportunity to promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership, which should ensure all nations and people enjoy a safer and more prosperous future. In Punjab, this day is celebrated every year by a large number of organizations predominantly by schools particularly those who are implementing National Green Corps Programme of the Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of India. Recognizing the fact that there is an urgent need to educate people and encourage them to actively participate in environment protection, Punjab State Council for Science & Technology requested all the District Education Officers (S) in the State to celebrate this day by involving schools covered under National Green Corps (NGC) Programme. NGOs and other institutions in Punjab and Chandigarh, actively taking up environmental activities under National Environment Awareness Campaign, were also requested in this regard. Schools and other institutions organized awareness programmes like seminars, rallies, competitions, etc. and also took up action activities like plantation, cleanliness operations, wetland conservation, etc. in the state on the World Environment Day, 2009 theme ‘‘Your Planet Needs You – UNite to Combat Climate Change’’. These activities help in educating public to actively participate for environment protection.

Council received a large number of reports regarding celebration of this day in a befitting manner. To encourage organization of environment awareness programmes and strengthen the movement for environment protection on the occasion of such internationally important days, PSCST decided to honour the district/schools that had done excellent work to celebrate this day. The category of awards given and the winners of awards for celebration of World Environmental Day 2009 are as under :

These schools and district were honoured on the concluding day of the 17th Children Science Congress organized by PSCST at Bal Bhawan, Sector 23, Chandigarh from November 18-20, 2009. Sh. H.S. Kandola, Additional Secretary, Science, Technology & Environment, Govt. of Punjab presented the awards. The best schools were also provided a special grant of Rs. 5,000/- each to enable them to take up additional environment improvement activities in their schools.

Contact Persons: Dr. S.S Ladhar, ssladhar@yahoo.com