Address on Environment by noted advocate and writer, Mr Shyam Divan

Annually, our school celebrates Environment Week. During this week, activities are planned to help spread awareness about the potential threats that our environment is facing. Also they teach ways in which the future generation can contribute to nullify them.

On 7July, 1013, under the aegis of environment for citizenship, our schoo organised a special assembly. Our speaker was Mr. Shyam Divan, Chairman of our Schools Managing Committee, a Senior Advocate ( specialising in environmental law) in the Supreme Court and co-author of a book on environmental law.

Mr. Divan was welcomed with an 'eco-token' of our respect- a potted plant! The special assembly commenced with the Citizenship Anthem which was energetically and melodiously sung by our junior school choir. As we know, it has been composed by our own western music teacher, Anthony sir.

Siddhant Arora of class XI-C kicked off the assembly with his power-point presentation on the plight of the lions of Gir. The audience was shown a short documentary on the Gir forest and the concerns of people working for the conservation of lions. Mr. Divan tehn threw light on some of the important environment- related cases in the Supreme Court. He highlighted the conflicting views of the governments of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh on the transfer of Asiatic lions from the Gir forest to Madhya Pradesh. Due to the rapid decrease in the number of lions in the state, the government of Madhya Pradesh was in support of this transfer but the government of Gujarat refused as they thought that sending lions to M.P would be like pushing them into the jaws of death ( poachers)!

The forests of Madhya Pradesh are getting quickly depleted of the traditionally charismatic animals, those that attract tourists to the state. Infact the government wants to create a mega fauna , filled with such animals and in an attempt towards this, it decided to import cheetahs from Africa, ( as apparently there is a surplus of them there and sometimes these cheetahs are killed to maintain the balance of the ecosystem). This idea was later dropped as this would become an obstruction in the process of increasing the numbers of lions.

Mr. Divan discussed another case aptly named Plastic Cows. According to this, when a study was conducted on fifty cows, the result was shocking. It was found that the minimum and maximum amount of plastic found in their insides was 35 kilos and 60 kilos respectively! He also informed the audience about a circular that demanded for a special enclosed habitat for dolphins named dolphinariums ( it is a fancier version of an aquarium for dolphins ). The reason this idea was not accepted is indeed quite an interesting one. Apparently, the dolphin is as intelligent as a human being so naturally, it too, deserves to enjoy a few rights, the most crucial of them being the right to live free and not be caged!

Mr. Divan concluded by introducing the audience to the book Exotic Aliens ( he even brought a copy for our school library). This book challenges the age- old theory that lions had an Indian origin! The tiger was always native Indian but the lions were brought to India, he said. This fact left everyone amazed as we always thought the lion to be our own!

The session very interactive by as Mr. Divan opened the house for questions. No matter how twisted the question was, no child left without a patient and satisfactory answer. Like all good things come to an end, so did this..

The assembly concluded with the vote of thanks and our standing up to sing the School song. We are extremely grateful to Sir for sharing his valuable time with us and for enlightening us on the latest happenings and concerns in the area of Environment.