DEVELOPMENT IN CAMPUS (ECO-FRIENDLY)????

Quest for Sustainable develepment
Every society needs development; especially in the present education scenario Govt. schools need to compete with private institutions. Infrastructure is one of the key factors which attract students and parents. The qualities of teachers are much better than our competitors, so we need more buildings to accommodate our students to have better education. Our school also received grant from Govt. for construction of buildings, so that the shift system prevalent in our school will change. We welcome this step as a fortunate one. Thanks to the Wandoor M.L.A. Sri. Anil Kumar and other representatives of our locality in making the dream come true.
But what made us so sad was that the big patch of natural vegetation remained was to be viped out due to this construction. Lot of public spending are being done to grow trees, like ‘ ente maram’, National Rural Employment Programme’, social forestry programmes etc. In text books including that of languages lot of stress is given for the importance of environment protection. So the students raised a question:-
Was any other option ever discussed instead of the present one which has less impact on our enviroment?
The same question raised in our minds also. But sadly they doubts were never addressed. Protests were completely suppressed. More than 15 big trees, lot of shrubs and herbs were destroyed. We have earlier documented the medicinal herbs found in that area. A small riverulet-cum-drainage which used to flow during rainy season was filled up. The well supplying water to the student strength of more than 3000 students in the school is also situated in this area. The bio-diversity of the whole area is destroyed. We contacted several officials in Education, Forest and media for the protection of the same, but unfortunately none bore results. Local politics also played against those who stood for alternatives. Lot of verbal harassment still continues.
Why the same wood was not used for making furniture needed for more than 13 classes?
We also would like to see the Social Forestry Dept. to develop a vision which is more eco friendly. It should rise from the position of just giving clearances to the plans submitted by the parties to an authority which can recommend some alternatives which will enrich the environment/ lessen the damage to the environment.
We prepared some 17 pictures depicting our protests and our doubts. We want these questions to be considered when there is development. Holistic development which goes in hand without destroying the environment should be preferred.(For more pictures please visit our flickr site:)