Casiola Fernandes
WADALA, SEPTEMBER 30, 2011: We are on a GreenLine trail, literally. The school is abuzz with a host of activities – from waste audit, waste segregation and composting to greening workshops and field trips, thanks to the trail left behind the GreenLine team. Introducing the school staff and students to a bank load of exciting and creative initiatives and proposals to a clean environment, Fr. Savio and his team have ensured that the eco values are high up there on our priority list!
A workshop on Organic Gardens at Don Bosco, Matunga came hot on the heels of an interactive session held by the GreenLine team in our school. A teacher and five of our students attended this workshop for schools participating in Green Schools campaign and conducted by Urban Leaves – a volunteer based organization working on urban food gardens. The resource personnel amazed the audience through their inputs and concrete examples that showed how the smallest of places could be utilized to organically grow plants and vegetables. There was never a dull moment during the sessions what with a display of collection of living caterpillars, butterflies, tomatoes and the like!
The very next day, on September 29 2011, forty eight of our students together with two our teachers set out for a nature trail conducted by the Godrej Company’s Soonabai Pirojsha Godrej Marine Ecology Centre (SPGMEC). They were joined by GreenLine’s own Lyra and Alden, at Vikhroli. On reaching the spot, our students were given a tour of the halls exhibiting the charts relating to mangroves. Mr. Hemant Karkhane of the SPGMEC enlightened the students on the mangroves through his brief presentation. He then led them to a hillock overlooking the vast expanse of land covered with mangroves. The mangrove trail by our students then followed. They were introduced to about fifteen different types of mangroves as well as the flora and the fauna therein. A study tour of the aquarium teeming with marine plants, animals and insects was another highlight of the day’s adventure. Notes taken, and with a concluding documentary film on the wet lands of India, our students headed back home richer and happier for the experience. It pays to go green!