On the occasion of the 74th Republic Day team Voice of Environment, a youth environmental organization, conducted a plantation drive and environmental awareness program at the Dispur College premises, Guwahati.
The VoE is implementing an environmental education and awareness program at the school and college levels as part of the Clean Green Assam initiative. As a result, it has been decided to hold the plantation drive and environment awareness program at Dispur College Guwahati on the auspicious occasion of the 74th Republic Day, to spread the message of environmental sustainability among students, community members, and citizens of the state and country.
Dispur College was founded in 1978 on the outskirts of the beautiful Narakasur Hills by some local visionaries, primarily to cater to the needs of children of working parents in Assam’s capital secretariat. The college has already completed 44 years of its glorious existence, having 12 academic departments both in the Arts and Commerce streams, along with highly efficient vocational departments in BBA and BCA.
The plantation drive started in the morning after the hosting of the national flag on the college premises. The VoE team was joined by the Dispur College principal, teachers, students, and other volunteer members. The team has planted saplings of some ornamental and medicinal plants. Dr. Navajyoti Borah, principal of Dispur College, emphasized nature conservation and the role of youths in nation-building activities during the drive, which began at Padma Shri Shakuntala Choudhary Girls Hostel with associate professor Dr. Sashi Mohan Das, VoE members, and college students. Suresh Kumar, a senior environmental specialist from Jharkhand, was the special guest at the Dispur College drive to motivate youths on this special occasion.
The plantation drive was led by Environmentalist Moharana Choudhury, Bhaskar Hazarika as well as Team VoE members Sunita Mishra, Rituraj Konwar, Manish Thapa, Bonojit Dutta and teachers from various departments.
Some plant saplings were also handed over to the Dispur College administration for adoption. The VoE team also had a brief discussion with the NCC team and others who participated in the initiatives led by Associate Professor Dr. Sashi Mohan Das, Suresh Kumar, and Environmentalist Moharana Choudhury about the importance of awareness programs for college students. It was also highlighted that the challenges faced by the citizens in the state, country, and the entire world are due to climate change, which is an alarming threat to the existence of living and non-living ecosystems.
During the interactive session with the students, Suresh Kumar emphasized the importance of mitigating climate change through local plantations because plants are the best source of CO2 sinks and the only source of oxygen to purify the air. He also discussed carbon footprints and how we can understand them by using the example of all of us riding bikes, which emit 2342 g of CO2 per 10 km, or 1 liter of diesel or gasoline per day. This is our carbon footprint, and we can minimize it by doing plantations only. One mature plant can consume approximately 25 kg of CO2 in a year. So we must know about our carbon footprints and the sources of sinks so that we can minimize carbon emissions in our daily lives. To mitigate climate change, we should focus on plant seeding technology rather than cloud seeding technology.
Team VoE believes that this type of drive will send a strong message for environmental conservation to the citizens of the state and country too. Team Voice of Environment (VoE) requested all the netizens and youths to join hands for such environmental conservation initiatives throughout the state and around the country so that the state and the nation can become sustainable and self-sufficient.
