Caring for a tree is caring of your soul.

The Indian School observed Environment Week from 10 to 15 July 2017, with activities both within and outside School.

Ms. Shreya Mehta, judge at the Saket District Courts addressed the students of classes VI and VII with an interactive session on Environment-how can we conserve our precious environment, how can we conserve trees, how to plant saplings etc. She also showed videos as she explained. Ms. Mehta briefed the students on how to initiate tree plantation, as some students did on 12 July, on the IIT-DELHI campus.

On Wednesday,12 July, 2017, 40 students of classes VI and VII visited the IIT-DELHI campus for the inauguration ceremony of a tree plantation drive initiated there by the Delhi State Legal Services Authority. The occasion started with an elaborate and enlightening inaugural session where sone eminent persons spoke on the relevance of the ceremony.

It was a programme under the project OUR EARTH AND US, a mission of Honble Justice Ms. Gita Mittal, Acting Chief Justice, the Delhi High Court, with Shri Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister, Delhi. Shri Kailash Gahlot, Law Minister and Shri Imran Hussain, Minister of Environment and Forests were also a part of the programme.

Eight students of the forty planted the saplings with the dignitaries as above. The students were then addressed by these dignitaries who promised to plant 16, 000 trees in all with students.

Shri Manish Sisodia addressed students and led a discussion on making Delhi Keekar- free in the next 10 years. He motivated the gathering to plant the maximum saplings to ensure a healthy environment for the future generations of our great capital. After the addresses, every student present planted a sapling on the campus and undertook to visit every quarter to see how the saplings were progressing. The programme concluded with an interactive session by the Director of IIT-DELHI, who shared his pride in being an alumnus of the institute. To top it all, the day ended with the live examples shared by Justice Gita Mittal on how she herself actively participates in taking care of the environment around her.

Overall, it was a very enriching experience and an invaluable hands'-on training for students. The project reinforced the need to successfully prove that if a child interacts compassionately and creatively with his environment he or she is likely to grow up with a harmonious and balanced temperament.

Three teachers from our School Ms. Deepali Gupta, Ms. Sarah Khanna and Ms. Chandrima accompanied the students at this important occasion.

Ms. Sarah Khanna.