The former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has called upon students to become eco-ambassadors and promote tree plantation in their respective localities.
He was speaking at the valedictory function of the 2nd International Environmental Youth Conference titled ‘Greening with Goethe’ here on Monday. It was jointly organised by Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan and University of Bremen, Germany, and the Indian Institute of Science.
On the occasion, Mr. Kalam administered an “environment oath” to students. He made them promise that they would plant trees to help create a clean and green environment, conserve water and use recycled things.
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He began his speech by posing a question to students as to how they reached the venue. “You must have reached here by two-wheelers or four-wheelers. Do you know that every litre of petrol emanates 2.3 grams of carbon dioxide?”
He then spoke on the need to evolve a comprehensive action plan to make the transport sector in the country energy independent. He said it was possible if biofuels and ethanol were used instead of petrol. The action plan should include research on biofuel and ethanol production, framing laws to make use of biofuel mandatory and upgrading technology in automobile industry.
He suggested that a multi-lingual multi-media curriculum should be designed on environment so that it could be used to educate students and professionals.
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A campaign on tree plantation in all schools with special focus on rural schools should be taken up to promote sustainable development.
On the ‘Greening with Goethe’ project, Mr. Kalam said: “Since most of you students are from Bangalore, you may like to study how the city can become carbon neutral by 2020. This model can be replicated in other cities.”
Later, students and teachers participating in the conference had a photo session with Mr. Kalam.
Associate Director of the IISc. N. Balakrishnan spoke.