Around 1.5 lakh students and 8,000 teachers from Vadakara educational district are on a mission to help quench the thirst of their winged friends. To beat the summer heat, the student-teacher collective under the Students Army for Vadakara Environment (SAVE) is gearing up to prepare birdbaths near their houses.
The project, with humble beginnings at the Payyoli Government Vocational Higher Secondary School four years ago, is eyeing a Guinness record this time as a massive field-level intervention for the protection of birds. The State government’s Haritha Keralam project too will support the initiative, now being implemented with the cooperation of various local bodies in 600 schools.
One of the 20 programmes
“Setting up of birdbaths is one of the 20 programmes currently being implemented under the leadership of SAVE. Through this, we aim to nurture a culture where students are truly concerned of the changes in the environment and respond quickly with possible solutions,” says Vadayakkandy Narayanan, district coordinator of SAVE. He adds that students part of SAVE have also been active campaigners for the use of fountain pens instead of plastic pens in schools.
Education Department officials, who attended the project launch on Saturday, say the students’ initiative should be a model for elders. All students and teachers in Kozhikode district should come forward to lend a helping hand to the initiative, they add.
The SAVE team has also declared special prizes for those setting up attractive birdbaths. Organisers say students may claim the prize after sending a photo of the artificial puddle they create to the email address, save4vatakara@
gmail.com.
