Nature is selfless and it has always given us good things in the purest form, but it is humans who have been polluting it in different ways, and its effect is already seen in the climate change that we are experiencing now, said Chairman of Visakhapatnam Port Authority(VPA) K. Rama Mohan Rao.
He was speaking at the closing ceremony of elocution competition and poster design contest for school students on the occasion of International Ozone Day, organised by the The Hindu FIC and ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Limited, here on Friday. The finals were held at Visakha Public Library here.
He also urged the young minds to play a responsible role in maintaining the balance of nature.
“There is a prediction that one day wars will be fought for water and it is now up to the present generation, to see that we do not see that day,” said Mr. Rama Mohan Rao.
Emission of greenhouse gases
Former Vice-Chancellor of Krishna University S. Ramakrishna Rao, in his address, said that the main cause for the depletion of the ozone layer is due to emission of greenhouse gases. “The time has come to drastically cut down the emission of greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide and CFC (chlorofluorocarbons). “One unit of CFC is eating into 10,000 molecules of ozone and this has to be cut down,” he said.
Vienna Convention
Executive Director of ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Limited, Mr. M. Ravindra Nath, in his address said that 35 years ago in the Vienna Convention, the leaders of the world have pledged to cut down the emission of greenhouse cases and since then there is a lot of activity in this direction and by 2070, scientists have predict that the ozone layer will be healed to a great extent, if things progress in this direction.
AMNS head (HR and Administration) D.S. Varma, said that the company has been conducting such programmes along with The Hindu since last 10 years and the idea is to create awareness among the children.
The topic for the elocution was ‘Single-use plastic and its impact on the climate’ (for both Junior and Senior categories) and for model presentation it was ‘Best out of waste’ or ‘Wealth from waste’.
Head of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism D.V.R. Murthy was the judge for the events.
Prize winners
In the elocution junior category, the top spot was taken by Aanchal Patra of Little Angels School and the second and third spots were taken by Aarav Singh of Timpany Senior Secondary School and V.V.D.S. Sanjana of Pollocks School.
In the senior category, Samuel G Satwik of Pollocks School has won the first prize, while V. Swapna of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavans and Dhatri Sree Somapuram of Sri Satya Sai Vidya Vihar have taken the second and third spots.
In the model presentation, Sparsh Jalan of Pollocks won the first prize, S. Abhinav of Pollocks (second) and the team from Sri Satya Sai Vidya Vihar comprising P. Eshita Reddy, Ch. Krishna Priya, M. Mounesh and N. Lohitaksh, have won the third prize.
