BIT-Sindri director SK Singh flags off the green marathon at Prakriti 2011 in Dhanbad on Sunday. (Gautam Dey)

Sindri, Feb. 20: Embracing an environment-friendly lifestyle was the message from BITians today, as Eco Club — one of the tech cradle’s 12 societies — kicked off its annual festival, Prakriti, with a green marathon.

Braving the morning cold, 75 students from 10 branches of BIT-Sindri covered more than 6km from the main gate of the institute to Vir Kunwar Singh Chowk, Saharpura, with a crowd of around a thousand people, including schoolchildren and their teachers egging them on.

BIT-Sindri director S.K. Singh flagged off the marathon on Jharia-Sindri main road around 8am in the presence of teachers.

Students marched along with slogans to protect the earth by curbing pollution.

Ranjan Kumar, a final-year B.Tech student, designed special T-shirts for the participants, sporting messages on planting trees and saving the environment from the degrading effects of global warming and greenhouse gases.

“The main activity of our club being protection of the environment, we decided to celebrate our annual fest in a unique way by organising a marathon. It gave a thrust to our campaign,” said Abhishek Chandra, the president of Eco Club and a third-year civil engineering student.

He added that students of De Nobili School, Lions Public School and Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial School had turned up to cheer participants at the marathon.

The Eco Club also organised a range of other competitions, including Udaan, a kite-flying contest, a tug of war, theme-based painting competition, musical chair and Deepanjali, a diya decoration contest, for students.

A special documentary made by members of the club — highlighting its activities and achievements — was also screened for visitors in the evening.

The club’s activities include aid for members of primitive tribes like the Birhors of Chalkari village in Topchanchi block, students of the Blind School in Dhanbad and physically challenged children of Picasso Art Centre.

Traditional games, which are still popular in rural areas, such as matka phor, were the other highlights of the day. “Every year, we organise a number of competition based on rural sports,” explained Ravi Kumar, the vice-president of the Eco Club.