Chandigarh, March 15: To promote Herbal Gardens, healthy food & lifestyle among young students & teachers Department of Environment, Chandigarh Administration and Yuvsatta-NGO organized ‘Herbal Gardens Awards 2023’ and a workshop for Eco Clubs on theme of ‘Abundant Backyard-Grow Nutrient dense Organic-Eat Healthy-Stay Fit’ at SGGS College, Sector 26, Chandigarh in which Principals and teachers from over 120 prominent schools and colleges of the city participated.
Sh. Debendra Dalai, IFS, CCF cum Director, Department of Environment, Chandigarh Administration was the Chief Guest on the occasion. And prominent resource persons included Dr. Rajiv Kapila, Sr. Ayurveda physician, Dr. Navtej Singh of Panjab Agricultural University and Pramod Sharma, founder of Yuvsatta.
In his address the Chief Guest Sh. Debendra Dalai shared that amid rising concern over harmful effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides in farm produce, Herbal Gardens and Eco clubs are set up in the educational institutions to sensitize the students about the importance of medicinal plants in daily life, to develop skills in students to develop and maintain herbal gardens and to involve community in herbal garden development in schools in order to make this process a learning and sharing experience.
Appreciating the theme of ‘Abundant Backyard-Grow Nutrient dense Organic-Eat Healthy-Stay Fit’, Sh. Dalai motivated the participating teachers to grow their own food at homes and instill this practice among their students, their parents as well. Nowadays with easy to do urban farming, rooftop farming concepts we all can produce our daily needs of nutrient dense organic vegetables easily at our homes. And in these challenging times of climate change and increasing carbon footprints on mother earth, growing our own food is the best service we can do for the well-being, health of our families, country and environment on planet earth.
On the occasion Sh. Debendra Dalai honoured the following three colleges and five schools of the city with ‘BEST HERBAL GARDEN AWARDS 2023’, carrying a trophy, merit certificate and five thousand rupees;
WINNING COLLEGES; Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, MCM DAV College for Women and DAV College, Chandigarh.
WINNING SCHOOLS: Carmel Convent School, Sacred Heart Sr. Sec. School, Government Model Sr. Sec. School, Sector 47D, St. Joseph’s Sr. Sec. School and St. Stephen’s School, Chandigarh.
The programme ended with a vote of thanks by Dr. Navjot Kaur, Principal, Sri Guru Gobind Singh College, in which she also shared about the Miyawaki plantation at her college, because of which the air quality is much better at their campus in comparison to other parts of the city.
