World Wetlands Day at Rewalsar

Rewalsar: WWF India and State Council for Science, Technology and Environment organised a function at Rewalser Lake in association with Centre for Sustainable Development (CENSUD) and My Himachal to celebrate World Wetlands Day. Wetlands Day is celebrated to commemorate the signing of Ramsar Convention in 1971.

About 150 students of five school viz GSSS Rewalsar, GSSS Chowk, Unity Public School Rewalsar, Trisangam Public School Rewalsar and Sarswati Vidya Mandir Rewalsar. Various programmes like waste collection, folk song, folk dance/play were organised on the theme “ Wetlands/Water Conservation”. The function started with Waste Collection Competition. All the participants collected waste material from around the lake and was segregated into biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste.

After that Vandna Thapliyal, State Director, WWF India welcomed chief guest BD Siyul, Conservator of Forests, Praveen Sharma, Member, Media Advisory Committee, Pradeep Thakur, DFO Sundernagar, Kunal Satyarthi, DFO Mandi and other dignitaries present on this occasion. She highlighted the importance of wetlands in ecology and stressed on the need of collective efforts from Govt. Bodies, NGO’s and masses to save these ecologically fragile ecosystems.

BD Siyul in his inaugural address said that Rewalsar is a religiously important place for Hindus, Sikhs and Budhists therefore it becomes even more important to save this lake being a part of our cultural heritage. Govt. is making all efforts to save this heritage but it is not possible without active participation of public in this effort. So people from every field should come forward in this pious cause. Moreover these lakes are also important for tourism and generate income for the local people.

Ravi Sharma, Scientific Officer, State Council for Science, Technology and Environment told that about three thousand eco-clubs are being started in Himachal Pradesh whereby three lakh students will involved in conservation and environment protection activities. He further told that a grant of 81 Lakhs has been received from Union Government which shall be spent on funding the activities of these eco-clubs.

Sanjeev Sharma, Sr. Project Officer, WWF India highlighted the activities of WWF and told about ‘Save Wetlands Sky High’ project which covers all wetlands 3,000 mts above sea level in five countries viz India, China, Pakistan, Nepal and Bhutan. All these wetlands are important for our ecosystem as they are source to major rivers in these countries making it important to conserve and protect these lakes.

Praveen Sharma, Member, Media Advisory Committee , stressed on the need to spread awareness regarding importance of wetlands, lakes and rivers. He further said that disposal of muck is a big issues which is endangering our lakes and rivers and it becomes very important to adopt scientific disposal of muck. The problem of wetlands can be solved only by involvement of masses in conservation activities.

Thereafter Chief Guest gave away prizes to different participants in waste collection, folk song, folk dance/play.

Programmes ended with vote of thanks by Jitender Verma, President, Centre for Sustainable Development. He thanked all the dignitaries and participants for making this programme a success. He said that we need to carry this work forward and should contribute in conservation in whatever manner we can.

Award winners:

Waste collection and segregation Competition

1. GSSS Rewalsar
2. GSSS Chowk
3. Sarsawati Vidya Mandir

Folk Song ( Theme: wetlands, lakes and water conservation)

1. Saraswati Vidya Mandir
2. Unity Public School Rewalsar
3. GSSS Rewalsar

Folk Dance/Play ( Theme: wetlands, lakes and water conservation)

1. GSSS Chowk
2. GSSS Rewalsar
3. Unity Public School Rewalsar

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