star.gif (2664 bytes)A Down To Earth Supplement
gtlogo.jpg (14384 bytes)
No. 7,  May 1999    
Gobar means animal dung in Hindi. All of rural India uses it in a variety of ways. Ways that exemplify sustainable existence. That's why we use it, too.

home.gif

Contents

gt_archive.gif


66_1.jpg (6662 bytes)

Sun, Sand and Science

GOA is the smallest state in India and its beauty attracts over a million visitors
to it every year. 66_2.jpg (23565 bytes)Sun, sandy beaches and the inky-blue Arabian Sea, on one hand, and the lush green forests of the Sahayadri hills on the other. Quite easily, paradise on earth. Ironically, it is Goa's beauty that is its undoing. Under the pressure of tourism its natural resources are being finished off, and its environment polluted. For instance, governmental laws in Goa have failed to tackle the problem of plastic in Goa, but students from a school in tiny Quepem, decided to study how waste plastic and paper could be reused. In Borim, another locality, children experimented with preparing manure from biodegradable wastes.

The All Goa Science Teachers' Association is the driving-force behind showing students how meaningful their studies can be to society's needs. This association promotes science seminars and quizzes, an annualovernight Children's Science Congress, and all sorts of exciting activities. Imagine, a three-hour stage performance, called Science Magic, where you learn science the fun way, instead of sitting through boring lectures. Suddenly, science is the issue-next-door and not some vague bookish subject.

Yet, how many science teachers' associations like this are there in India, which make science practical and interesting? Our country staggers under problems, and many of its solutions can be found in scientific creativity.

Shrikant S Nagvenkar
66_3.jpg (19235 bytes)

The Goa Science Teachers’ Association head, Shrikant S. Nagvenkar, is worried that popular science magazines for students aren’t easily available. Running science clubs needs enthusiasm, which is sometimes in short supply. Still, whether its popularising cooking recipes that reduce fuel consumption, or making a report on the industrial pollution resulting from a new industrial estate in Cuncolim village, in Goa, GSTAand the school-kids show the way.

 

For further details, contact:
Science Teachers' Association
c/o Progress High School, Panjim 403001, Goa.

MUCK-MAIL

Gobar Times online: www.cseindia.org

gtboy.gif (13151 bytes)

ATREE- EHP (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment - Eastern Himalaya Programme) is working with the schools of Kalimpong in the field of EE. We got our first issue of Gobar Times. It’s very informative in the right way (for the school students as well for their teachers, parents and principals).

We are just starting this project. The process of environmental degradation has set in in Kalimpong and some of the schools are concerned and feel that EE in schools could make a difference.

The Forest Development Corporation has agreed to give us some space to house an EE Resource Centre. We want to equip this well with all relevant reference material in the form of teaching aids and reading material (we intend keeping the back issues of Gobar Times here).

Ruchi Pant
Darjeeling

I was really pleased about the Gobar Times issue dated 15, March 1999. The issue of Gobar Times has taken me to the pinnacle and taught me the lesson that every drop counts to make an ocean. I have stopped burning crackers, I use a bicycle for travelling, and try to recycle all I can. Thus, I, in my small little way, am trying to save the planet. Hope your wonderful supplement as well as the magazine Down to Earth goes a long way in making our dear planet a better place to live in.


Navneeth.P
Banglore

I feel pollution in the big cities has increased to a great extent. It is necessary to prevent our environment from the smoke that comes that out from vehicles and factories. This smoke is not only harmful to the ozone layer but also to humans. People breathing this air suffer from asthma, cold and cough and other diseases. We should do all we can to save our environment, otherwise it might cost us our lives. 66_5.jpg (18715 bytes) We try to plant more trees to reduce the CO2 and CO levels in the air. We should also look for alternate fuels that are inexhaustible and do not pollute, like petrol and diesel

Niranjan Nanawaty
Pune

I am a regular reader of Gobar Times. I share all the issues of the magazine with my friends in school who have become very fond of it. I really enjoy reading 'Cowpats’, ‘Eye Openers’, 'Peeco peeks at ecology' and 'Fundung'. It would be interesting if you could make GT monthly with more pages.


Tara Sriram
Banglore.