CHENNAI: It was only apt that a project to upgrade the environment be launched from a school that understood the value of conserving nature.

In the courtyard of the Corporation Girls Higher Secondary School on Jones Road in West Saidapet, environment activists advised girls from class VIII to XII who sat under the shade of a banyan tree and three pungai trees on the need to conserve nature.

West Saidapet Exnora Innovators Club launched a project to upgrade the environment in the area, under Ward 135 of Chennai Corporation, by planting trees in the school. The aim is to plant 830 saplings in three months. Exnora members will take up garbage segregation and install compost bins to provide manure for the trees.

Chief Conservator of Forests S. Balaji who inaugurated the project, praised the school for its clean environs. He called on each student to plant a tree in front of her house and nurture it for five years.

He explained that the slow growing pungai (Indian breech), neem trees and the fragrant marmalli (Millingtonia) were good for health. Tamarind trees should be planted along highways, and Gulmohar in deep pits so that they were not uprooted in squalls, he said. He gave away saplings to five students who planted them on the school premises. Ten trees would be planted on the school premises.

Councillor M. Balasubramanian praised the students' commitment to studies and recalled that students scored good marks and were on a par with those in private schools.

source: www.hindu.com