Members of Nature Club keep their school ground clean. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

They have left no stones unturned to make Calcutta cleaner and healthier. From rainwater harvesting to anti-plastic campaigning, the LMG Nature Club girls have done it all

While pollution levels rise, members of the Nature Club at La Martiniere for Girls (LMG) work that bit harder to make Calcutta cleaner and a better place to live in. “The students of the club are very active and its membership is increasing every year. The children are involved in a number of commendable projects like rainwater-harvesting and making the school a no-plastic zone,” says principal Hilda Peacock.

The Nature Club, formed 27 years ago, functions with members being assigned regular projects. They maintain a no-horn zone in Rawdon Street where they stand vigil in the morning and afternoon. “The noise level in the city is too high. We hope to make people more conscious so that they don’t blow horns unnecessarily,” she adds.

To keep the school plastic free, students also conduct a mandatory check in the morning and confiscate any plastic that may be found and send them for recycling. The dustbins placed on the campus are also made of tin scraps.

Field cleaning on the school campus and dislodging billboards on trees outside the school are some of their regular activities. “Since there are many schools in the vicinity, tutorial homes keep placing promotional boards on the tree branches. We take them off immediately” says Rolie Vajpayee, treasurer of the club.

The rainwater harvesting project was set up in 2004. Rainwater that collects on rooftops, through layers of purification, gets stored in the tanks. The water is used for gardening and cleaning.

The 100 members in the Nature Club meet every Thursday. Their turtle badges mark them out as Nature Club members. “We also make masks, paper and jute bags,” says convener Mallika Hirwana. “We do not force anybody to join the club, it is strictly voluntary,” says Baruna Roy Chowdhury, a senior teacher who guides students in their activities.

“We have conducted a no-plastic campaign in Victoria Memorial and the Maidan where plastic items were seized from passersby and replaced with paper and jute bags. We have also conducted a tree census, measuring the bark and height of trees, in Rawdon Street and sent the details to Calcutta Municipal Corporation,” says Astha Fogla, an office holder of the club. They work in collaboration with People United for Better Living in Calcutta.

The Nature Club also organises a fest called Creation, where various schools are invited to participate. “There is western song, dance, theatre, quizzes, and screening of films and we try to dwell on topics and issues related to Nature to create awareness,” says the president Swati Shah.

Jhinuk Mazumdar

Chit chit

Mad Science space camp

Launching a remote-controlled rocket and demonstrating the concept of propulsion with a makeshift engine fitted to a toy car were only some of the activities that the 22 participants at the Outer Space camp, organised by Mad Science, took in. Held from May 19 to 23, for children from classes II to VI, the camp, developed in association with Nasa, used a hands-on approach to illustrate concepts of astronomy and space travel.

The children were shown 3D models of the solar system, including asteroid belts, the Kuiper Belt, a region past the orbit of Neptune and the Oort Cloud, a vast cloud at the outer reaches of the solar system where comets are believed to reside. Said Anirban Chanda of Mad Science: “We try to introduce children to astronomical concepts through a practical, rather than textbook approach.” The charge per student is Rs 3000. The events will be available as an After School Programme on Saturday mornings for eight weeks.

SHOUT OUT LOUD

What’s on your mind this week

Dress distress

The other day, I was shopping at a store when I came upon an interesting sight. A lady was arguing with the salesman over a pair of jeans. No jeans seemed to fit her skinny figure.

If you thought that only women prefer ‘size 0’, think again. Wouldn’t you prefer your boyfriend to be lean, scrawny and gym loving? Don’t you drool over Hrithik’s abs rather than Govinda’s bulge? Today’s generation seems to have forgotten the

difference between being healthy and being thin.

None of us dare enjoy food today lest we pile on the calories. Even designers create their exquisite lines keeping thin people in mind and leave the boring stripes and checks for us biggies. I revolt. Being thin is not cool. It is being sick! Life’s about living, not just existing.

Arnesh Ghose