Tmanna Sarah Warlikar, a student from Sharda Mandir School,
Miramar stated the state of the environment was not something to be proud of.
She pointed out that the recent summer of 2022 was the hottest in recent
memory. She also pointed out the irregular rains saying, “The rains were and still are quite
unpredictable. I don’t remember it raining every single month of the year
before mid – year 2021. All of this being the result of environmental damage
and global warming.” She elaborated how
environmental efforts may seem useless to the layman saying, “It might be
indifferent to many people but all these clean up drives and talk sessions
trying to educate people on the effects of environmental/ climate change
actually make a difference. At immediate-effect we should and must plant trees,
reduce the use of fossil fuels, and reduce the use of non-recyclable
materials.”
Tamanna also promoted the trend of slow
fashion which meant being thrifty as opposed to fast fashion which consumes and
pollutes water bodies and landfills. Speaking about her institute’s efforts to
make students great green soldiers she said “It’s a constant practice to do as
much as we possibly can from our side to protect the environment. Every once a
year our school held a green drive for different classes to plant trees on the
campus and/or outside. Besides this we have an entire subject called
environment studies in the primary section, an age where most kids pick up
habits. The students are encouraged to walk or cycle from close distances
rather than come with vehicles unless necessary. We have planned an organised
clean up drive at school on the last working day before the 2nd of October.
Besides this we have quite a few informative seminars.”
Hiral Sidhu, Kendriya Vidyalaya, Bambolim also spoke about the
State’s levels of greenery in recent times. She said “Goa is a developing state;
it’s a popular tourist place for people all around the world which makes it
difficult to keep track of every place and its cleanliness. Goa is trying to
maintain its cleanliness, and a lot of people of various ages have started
their own groups and clean up drives.” She stated that telling more people to
join such drives held by friends would aid the chances of maximum
participation. Hiral said “My school encourages Swatch Bharat by either calling
known people to give a speech about its importance which helps out a lot of
children. They even hold drives once a month and make sure to have garbage cans
at regular distances throughout the school.”
A student at VM Salgaocar College of Law, Ahlia Hussain compared
the state of Goa in its former state and what it was like currently saying, “Goa is in a much better state than it was
before since there have been many measures taken to make the environment
healthier and preserve it. Also due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the pollution has
effectively decreased in the last 2-3 years.”
Glenda Mascrenhas, faculty at Don Bosco College, Panjim and Eco
Club in-charge, mentioned the many climate issues Goa faced like the Mollem
project and the high commercialisation. “We need to stand up against this in a
united manner and try to eradicate the issues so that we can save Goa since
it’s just a dot on the map. The influx of tourists in the state puts a lot of
pressure on the resources of the state.” She described the efforts made by the
college in favour of our environment saying, “We at Don Bosco are trying our
best to create awareness about all these problems. We invited many young
environmentalists and lawyers to have sessions for our students and our aim is
to create that awareness to the youth. We also have a lot of beach clean-up
drives, plantation drives, e-waste campaigns, and e-waste drives.”
Ayesha Lopes, IHM Porvorim student, stressed on the significance
that segregation has had on reducing the environmental damage in Goa. She said,
“Unfortunately, what we’ve been doing for the past couple of decades has inched
us closer to environmental change. The root cause being the way we segregate
our waste which is very disorganised or sometimes not even at all.” She shared
how she implemented easy home-segregation plans that were discovered online. “We made a compost bin where we threw our
organic waste and then used it to make manure. We also started properly
segregating wet and dry garbage as well as electronic waste like batteries and
bulbs.” Ms Lopes also
revealed the constructive-criticism she faced. She said “My family asked me one
day ‘why bother segregating the waste because the garbage collection truck
tosses it all together anyways’, so I told them, ‘why store spices separately?
It’s because each spice has an individual flavour and storing each separately
helps and keeps the flavour intact. It’s about preserving value.’ The same goes
for our waste. When we store and sort our waste separately, we retain its value
and pass on the benefits of that to our sanitation workers, recyclers and
others in the chain. When we dispose of mixed waste not only is each material
difficult to separate but each material is also releasing harmful toxins in our
air, water and soil. Waste segregation has a lot of benefits, we just need to
start”.
“As we haven’t really been going to school
because of the pandemic, we used to bring plants to school and water them
daily, and as we have a big garden behind our school, we’d plant some seeds and
take alternate chances to water them and the school would give us marks. We
would also have a cleaning session in and around our school during the Scouts
and Guides classes.” Sarah Hussain,
student from Our Lady of the Rosary Higher Secondary School, spoke about her
institute and also how she personally attempts to be eco-friendly saying, “I
make sure that whenever I have wrappers or waste which needs to be disposed in
the dustbin, I store it in my bag or pocket until I find one to throw it in.”
Shimei Nathan, a student from St. Xavier’s College, Mapusa shared
her observations about the improving environment of Goa but states the climate
changes here have been very drastic.“I can speak for Goa alone, saying that there is a visible
effort made to preserve our environment. Most beaches have clean-up drives but
not only for tourists and scenic beauty but more importantly focused to reduce
pollution and help marine wildlife.” She also mentioned how her college has
attempted to raise awareness about the importance of our
environment.“St.Xavier’s college has an Eco Club and a NSS club which organises
a cleanliness drive every Mon-Wed-Fri and even people not part of the club can
join.”
A
concern that is both urgent and existential is receiving a lot of attention and
help from our locals who are extremely bent on safekeeping our home from any
exploitation or harm. It is fortunate that our schools and colleges are
sensitizing the youth about the rising climate issues and providing solutions
to each individual which will not only help the State but also the world.
