Several activities were lined up at Bidhan Sishu Udyan in Ultadanga on World Environment Day. The event, that was organised jointly by the Calcutta chapter of the National Academy of Science India (Nasi), began with a quiz. 
Who is known as the Indian father of the green revolution? M. S. Swaminathan. Which gas had leaked in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy? Methyl isocyanate. Who was the first Indian king who worked to protect the environment? Asoka. 
Students had formed teams of three and answered questions on these lines. “The quiz was tough but we managed some important breakthroughs. It helped that I have environmental studies as a subject in school,” said Arpan Sarkar, who won the contest along with team mates Abhijit Shaw and Sangita Ghatak. 

A sit-and-draw contest followed, and those between classes V and VIII drew factories spewing smoke and woodcutters felling trees. “I drew a girl handing a bag of rubbish to the garbage man and behind her I drew another girl planting a tree,” said Pritika Dey, a resident of BA Block who herself had planted a Chhola sapling in her house the previous day. 

Anurag Sen, who came second, had drawn a beautiful scenery with trees and birds. Moumita Roy came first.
Arun Lahiri Majumder of Bose Institute delivered a lecture on the environment, bio-diversity and plant life and spoke about research to grow Porteresia, a variety of rice, in the saline waters of the Sundarbans.  

Finally, the top three entries of a short-film making contest were screened. Najirul Haque, the winner, had made a film on a youth who longs for the parks and gardens he would play in when he was young because now buildings have come up in their place. The film ends with the boy opening a Facebook group to save the environment and inviting his childhood friends to join. 

The second place winner was Arpan Sarkar who showed how a boy wastes water, electricity and litters his surroundings all day. “In one scene we had to show a running tap and we got it right in a single take as we didn’t want to waste water in real life either,” he said. 

The third place winner, Soumyadeep Dutta’s film, was a montage of shots showing pollution of the Hooghly river.
Udyan secretary  Gautam Talukdar said attendance was low for the event due to the ongoing heat wave. “And the heat is a result of the destruction of the environment by us. I urge everyone present in the audience today to plant a tree on World Environment Day and help return Nature to normalcy,” 
he said. 

President of Nasi Hemanta K. Majumder said they organise such events for students to teach them things beyond their school syllabi. “We want to show them that science is exciting,” he smiled.