Cities for Forests, a nationwide campaign, conducted by the World Wildlife Fund, was launched in Hyderabad recently at the KBR National Park, in association with the Wildlife Education and Extension Wing of the AP Forest Department. “The aim of this campaign is to raise awareness about the intrinsic link between forests and human well being among the youth,” said Ms. Farida Tampal, Director of WWF, Andhra Pradesh. Children from the 11 schools of the city, which have WWF nature clubs, attended the launch. Explaining to the children about what they are expected to do over the next four months, Ms Tampal suggested to them to find green areas that support the city, to try and study the biodiversity there and note the threats to these areas.
“Exploring, searching and documenting landmark trees near one's home and school is an activity that is easy to take up. This information and also creative expressions of findings in the form of poems, jokes, stories, pictures, drawings and write-ups can be uploaded onto the website for others to see and learn from,” she says.
Source of life
Amala Akkineni, founder of Blue Cross Hyderabad and a member of WWF, said “Earlier the jungle was considered a dangerous place, however, today the city is the dangerous place and the jungle is a lot safer. Trees are a source of life for all animals, birds and insects, we must protect and preserve them.”
Vishesh Agarwal, a Std. VII student of Nasr Boys School, found the campaign interesting. He feels that “we need to protect our greenery for our future generations. Such events will only help us to stand up for our natural surroundings and to help preserve what is not destroyed as yet.”
Zeenaaz Shabbir, Std. VIII student of Learnium School says, “we need to keep the areas around us clean and green for our own good health. Campaigns like this emphasise the importance of nature, forests and greenery. If we join such campaigns, we will automatically keep our surroundings clean and good health will follow.”
Chief guest Mrs Ramalakshmi, Additional PCCF and Commissioner Sericulture told the children to observe how many people live under trees and how many people earn their livelihood under trees.
“Documenting this interesting information will make our position to stop the irresponsible chopping of trees much stronger.”
For more information on this campaign one can log onto the website www.citiesforforests.in.
