Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

Schoolchildren debate ecological issues

— Photo: M.Karunakaran

R.Rangathan, Director – Amalgamations Repco Ltd. greeting participants at ENVIRO 2009 in Chennai on Saturday. R.Rengasamy , Member, State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority for Tamil Nadu (left), is in the picture.

CHENNAI: Teams from different schools in the city participated on Saturday, the first day of ENVIRO 2009, a two-day programme for children to speak, write and debate on environmental matters.

Defending the use of plastics instead of wood, they said plastics made good packaging material, containers and buckets. Wooden buckets and containers would be far too heavy to carry, they said. In the argument against plastics, the children said burning of plastics emitted toxins and that plastics clogged rivers and waterbodies.

In the debate on transportation and environment, children suggested that car pooling, use of CNG as fuel and use of bicycles would help cut down pollution.

The programme was jointly organised by the Industrial Waste Management Association (IWMA) and Science Olympiad Foundation at the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board Auditorium. Sixty children were selected to participate in the finals that would be held on Sunday.

Inaugurating the programme, R. Rangathan, Director, Amalgamations Repco Ltd., said school students must use their notebooks effectively and not leave pages unutilised.

“It takes 20 trees to make a tonne of paper. Better use of paper would be our small contribution to protect the environment.”

S. Mani, Chairman of IWMA and Senior Vice-President and Head - Corporate SHE and CSR, Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals, said that the association had planned to organise such programmes for children every year. R. Rengasamy, Member, State Level Environment Impact Assessment Authority for Tamil Nadu, said that the present generation of children was very informed about issues that would impact their lives.

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