There are 47 species of birds on the K’Sirs school campus. Five hundred trees, all native species, grow within its boundaries. Most importantly, the school does not allow even a scrap of waste to go out of its gates.
Even as the Coimbatore Corporation wrestles with the huge problem of garbage accumulation and its disposal, K’Sirs makes solid waste management look like a walk in the park.
There are 1,038 students that pour in and out of the school every day. Around 500 staff and students eat food cooked in-house. Every drop of grey water is recycled. “We have goats that acts as our lawn mower,” laughs Lalita Prakash, executive director, of the school.
There are Kangeyam cows and their dung is used as fertilizers and vermi-composting is an ongoing activity. The children are sensitised to solid waste management.
In fact, this year classes six to 12 took part in a major project that dealt with waste management. Each class was assigned a specific area. Students visited a restaurant, a goldsmith’s workshop, a supermarket, a photo-studio, a local Mess, a gated community and individual houses to see what kind of waste and how much of it was being generated. They also visited a Panchayat and the Coimbatore Corporation to learn more about the civic body’s role in waste management.
“The children and staff of the school are already into the habit of segregating. The next step is to take this awareness out of the school, says Lalita. The school also runs a Carbon Neutral programme where through various parameters (students and staff fill a detailed questionnaire about their diet, mode of transport, what they wear, their cosmetics, cooking medium, type of lighting they use at home, etc.), it measures the carbon footprint and tries to neutralise it by planting the requisite number of saplings.
