Teacher Honoured for Environmental Education

Teacher Honoured for Environmental Education

Chennai: A school teacher who educates the scheduled tribes in the Kundra and Soro areas in Orissa has bagged the C P R Environmental Education Centre award. Swaraj Kumar Kanhar received the award from the renowned agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan at a function here on Saturday.

The award aimed to honour a teacher, preferably from the rural areas, who had contributed to environmental education and awareness. Kanhar had helped people in times of distress by providing medical assistance to those affected by fires and floods.

Speaking at the function, M S Swaminathan, chairman, C P R Environmental Education Centre, said that culture and bio-diversity were once interwoven in India and urged that it had to be restored by educating people to live in harmony with nature/'School teachers should know the value of bio-diversity in order to educate others," he pointed out.

Explaining his work in Orissa, Kanhar said, "We have taken our 99 school students from standards one to seven to spread awareness across the region. Our activities inspired other schools also to take up the initiative."

He recalled that the Orissa government had formed the 'Eco Club' to motivate the students to protect the environment, with at least 40 students representing each school. Starting with only 100 schools in the year 2000, the club now had a membership of 250 schools, he said. Kanhar added that the District Environment Society (DES) also conducted eco-tourism and camps with 10 schools in each team.