The Department of Environment and Climate Change, Government of Kerala, announced the awards for the Best Bhoomithra Sena Clubs in Kerala for the year 2016-17 during the Ozone Day celebration held at VJT Hall, Thiruvananthapuram on 16 September, 2017.

BMC of St Teresa’s College was adjudged the best club amongst the colleges in central Kerala, while MKM HSS, Piravom, was adjudged as the best club at the school level.  The club members received the trophy from Adv K Raju. Honourable Minister for Forests, Animal Husbandry and Zoos.  Shri VS Sivakumar, MLA Thiruvananthapuram, presided over the function. The others who joined in speaking for the cause were Smt Padma Mohanthy, Director of the Directorate of Environment and Climate Change; Sanjay Kumar IFS, Sports Director; Dr Joy Elamon, Director of KILA  and Dr George Chakkassery, Director of the Centre for Climate Change Studies, Kottayam.

The Bhoomitra Sena Club of St Teresa’s College carry out various activities which earned them this award. Some of these are:

Ente Haritha Bhavanam Project’, a joint initiative of Ernakulam District Administration, District Suchitwa Mission and St. Teresa’s College, Ernakulam, has provided a unique platform for college students to contribute to environmental protection from their own homes. A set of Ten Commandments of a green home dealing with the management of waste, organic cultivation of vegetables, green protocol and various green habits has been introduced to all the second year undergraduate students of St. Teresa’s College.

The students of the College actively volunteered in implementing Green Protocol at Malayattoor during the months of April-May. A total of 84 students volunteered over a period of one month to implement the Green Malayatoor Project initiated by Shuchithwa Mission and District Collector of Ernakulam.

Under the initiative of the club a green protocol is being implemented on campus, to make the campus a green zone, accordingly disposable paper/plastic cups have been replaced with steel glasses at all the tea and coffee vending machines. Flexes are avoided on campus and students are encouraged to use eco friendly materials for their projects.

The BMC along with Entrepreneurship Development Club of the college has started a social entrepreneurship unit to promote eco-friendly alternatives to rexin and plastic bags. More than 1000 students in the college now use eco-friendly Prakriti Bags, made of textiles, as their college bags to reduce rexin waste. They also use Bhoomitra Sanchis is a small, compact bag which help avoid the use of plastic bags even for sudden and unplanned purchases. These bags which come up to the size of a fist come in different shapes and designs such as strawberry bag, carrot bag, ball bag, zip bag (small and big) etc.

The team also supports various local governments in implementing eco-friendly alternatives to plastic carry bags. The students are Master Faculty for the Haritha Keralam Project of the Government of Kerala. Tutorial videos made by the club on stitching very attractive strawberry bags, zip bags, ball bags, zero cost T Shirt bag etc are uploaded the web page of Suchitwa mission of the Government of Kerala. The team has also supported the Go Green initiative of Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram and have also facilitated training of Kudumbasree members in 80 odd Panchayats in Ernakulam district.

Shuchithwa Haritha Puraskara

JUNE 6, 2016: In connection with the World Environment Day celebrations, Shuchithwa Haritha Puraskara Samarpanam was held in the college. The Shuchithwa Haritha competition organized by Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, aimed at encouraging educational institutions to be pro-active in environment related activities. The function was presided over by Ms. Soumini Jain, Mayor of Cochin Municipal Corporation and Mr. Hibi Eden MLA. Dr.Vasuki IAS, Executive Director of Shuchithwa mission, highlighted the need to minimize resource consumption and waste generation.

Paristhithi Mithra Award-2016

JUNE 10, 2016:  The college received the Paristhithi Mithra Award-2016 for outstanding contribution towards the promotion of environmental education, protection and conservation in the state of Kerala, Instituted by CEERD, St. Stephen’s College, Uzhavoor. This is the first time that an educational institution is receiving the award which for the past few years have been bagged by various social service societies.

Share This Story, Choose Your Platform!

Share This Story,

Published On: September 20th, 2017Categories: Public News