Eleven Delhi schools bag green award

Eleven schools from Delhi are among 36 schools in the country which have bagged this year's Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) Green School Award for adopting environment-friendly practices in their campuses.

Delhi Transport Minister Ramakant Goswami and members of rock band Indian Ocean gave away the awards at a ceremony here Friday.

Instituted by the CSE, a non-government organisation, the awards under its Annual Green Schools Programme, are given in the field of natural resource management.

"Students from all over the nation are doing exemplary work in environmental conservation by minimising water consumption and harvesting water, optimising their energy use, shifting to mass transport modes, and catering to bio-diversity conservation in their school compound," said Sunita Narain, director general of CSE.

Some of the schools which won the award are Father Agnel School, New Delhi; DAV Public School, Gurgaon, Haryana; and Motilal Nehru School of Sports, Sonipat, Haryana.

According to Sumita Dasgupta, programme director of CSE's environmental education unit, in the last two years the number of schools participating in the Annual Green Schools Programme has gone up from 15,000 to 21,000.

"The programme has been extended to Sri Lanka, and two schools from there have also been awarded for their work in waste management," Dasgupta said. -IANS