Girls attend the foundation day celebration at Nalanda Medical College on Monday. Picture by Sachin

A national conference on aquatic ecosystems and their management was inaugurated at Birla Institute of Technology, Patna, on Friday. Inaugurating the event, Janak Pandey, the first vice-chancellor of Central University of Bihar, stressed on the need for water conservation.

The three-day event — Aquatic ecosystems and their management: recent trends and future perspectives — was organised by the Centre for Environmental Sciences, Central University of Bihar.

Pandey said: “With changes in the climatic condition and depletion of the water table, it is high time we focus on water conservation.”

Debdas Banerjee, vice-chancellor, Central University of Bihar, presented a global view on water and governance. He claimed that the state and central governments should work together on programmes to conserve water.

The first day of the conference saw several delegates from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Maharashtra, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and other states in attendance. Among the delegates were researchers, forest officers and activists working towards wetland conservation.

Convener Ram Kumar, head of department, Centre for Environmental Sciences, welcomed the guests and elaborated on the scientific and technical sessions to be addressed by the speakers.

Dr Arvind Jha, an Indian Forest Service Officer from Maharashtra, explained the role of the mangrove ecosystem — made of water, muddy soil, shrubs, trees — and its management.

Wildlife biologist Faiyaz A. Khudsar elaborated on the role of ecology in the restoration of wastelands and flood plains. He discussed the restoration of the flood plain of the Yamuna in Delhi to the Yamuna Biodiversity Park as an example of success of restoration ecology.

Rocking fashion

Jeevatva, the three-day fest of Chanakya National Law University, was an action-packed event to remember.

It started on March 22 with a fashion show where girls walked the ramp in flowing Anarkalis and gorgeous saris. Games, skits, dance and singing performances, including hip-hop, were among the other features of the annual event.

The second day, a Calcutta-based rock band performed songs like Sweet Child O’ Mine (Guns N’ Roses), Dil se (from the 1998 film by the same name) and Teri Deewani (Kailash Kher).

A model United Nations debate was also organised on the second day.

Held in the memory of Late Shailesh Chandra Mishra, the husband of Justice Mridula Mishra, (the chairperson of Bihar Land Tribunal), 30 teams participated in the debate. Teams had come from Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, Hidayatullah National Law University, Raipur, and KIIT Odisha.

The agenda included the “Responsibility to protect civilians against excessive force in conflict areas” and “Reforms of the Security Council with reference to veto powers of the permanent nations”.

The participants in Jeevatva also tried their hand at different games such as basketball, gully cricket, futsal (a variant of football mostly played indoors), volleyball, carom and chess.

Medical fete

Nalanda Medical College started an 11-day event on Sunday to mark its foundation day that falls on April 2. Sports, debate and cultural programmes would mark the celebrations.

Gynaecologist Manju Gita Mishra and cardiologist B.B. Bharti (from Patna) and neurologist B.B. Bhattacharya from Calcutta would also present research papers during the course of the foundation day programme.

Dr Shiv Kumari Prasad, the principal, spoke on the history of the college on Monday. The college was established in 1970 with an idea to produce bright and young doctors.

“Classes started from April 2, 1970, and Dr Shailendra Kumar Sinha was the first principal of the college. In the beginning, 150 students took admission. After eight years, the state government took over the college and its was recognised by the Medical Council of India. The students’ intake was reduced to 50 and they were selected through state and central government competitive examinations,” she said.

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