Urban lifestyles have drastically distanced children from a holistic up-bringing as the city topography is covered in concrete. Families no longer make trips to grand-parents living in small towns or villages, mostly because that generation has long gone. In an age with rapidly dwindling importance being laid on ecology and connecting with nature, and children wrapping their lives around music players, play stations, gizmos and what-not, the Bharathi Vidya Bhavan’s School, Jubilee Hills, has been consistently trying to convert the school campus into an eco-friendly one. As one enters the campus, there is a small patch of flowering plants with butterflies flitting around. A small pond filled with fishes and adorned with hydra and lilies lead the way to the main atrium. Surrounding the main block which hosts the administrative section and secondary school classes is a science park, herbal plant patch, vegetable garden and a creeper grid. Between the secondary and primary blocks is a landscaped garden that has a corner hosting a variety of rose plants, some rock outcrops and a display of the roots of some the big trees that were cut down. Behind the buildings is an interesting sight. Off to a corner is a shed that houses a cow with her off-spring, a small bird enclosure, a baby swimming pool in the making and at the far off-end, a recently developed fruit patch. On the terrace of the primary block are two separate one-square-foot garden patches. If the number of garden patches around the school seems long, wait till you read the list of plants growing in them.While this may be impressive for a school located smack in the middle of the city, the real success lies in the interest the school has managed to generate among its students to help maintain these plants and trees. Minutes after the principal makes an announcement calling to all those who engage in the garden, there is a throng of students ranging from fifth to eighth standard that gather round, eager and excited. The children shout out the names of plants they helped plant, the ones they take care of, the latest garden activity they did and so on. Of course, also added to their exuberance was the simple pure joy of having completed an examination. The latest activity the children were excited about was a guessing game the principal, Rama Devi had set for the children the previous day. Indicating the size, features and location (on campus) of a particular plant, children were asked to identify it. “Everyone except two of the students got it wrong. But what was heartening was that the children were curious enough to try and answer. That’s a start,” says a beaming Rama Devi. The ‘garden club’ was also buzzing about the passion fruit juice they had had a few days ago. Says Vibhav of class seven, “I never tasted the passion fruit before,” while another student Nithya, also from the same standard, says, “It tastes better than the other juices like Papaya.” Teachers Sudha and Sudha Rani who are part of the core team that help run the garden activities explain, “Passion fruit isn’t a very common fruit. This way we introduce the children to a wider range of plants. It’s really sad, but some of them can’t even tell the difference between a neem and a curry leaf. We want to create that minimum awareness at least.”The impressive list of plants that are grown on the campus include corriander, aloe vera, methi, brinjal, tomato, pepper, neem, sweet lime, mango, coconut, tulasi, haldi, tincture, cabbage, bottle gourd, sponge gourd, lemon grass, radish, green peas, drumstick, pomera, passion fruit and amaranthus, besides a host of medicinal plants that are supposed to be good for diabetics.Without question, the school has a lot of work on its hands. The garden is just blossoming and maintaining the plants especially since they are spread out across the campus, will be a mammoth task. Students will come and go and maintaining a consistent student body that will take interest in the plants will have their work cut out for them. But the faculty seem confident that things will work out.
Comments
0 comment