Some of us talked, some walked and some planted saplings to make our world greener. We, the students of Kendriya Vidyalaya 1, had an eventful Van Mahotsav on July 13.
A programme was organised in our assembly hall that was decorated with plants and flowers. The first event was a welcome song, Ye kaliyaan jo mehke ye panchhi jo gaaye, in chorus by students from classes VII and VIII, led by Mohona Barua of Class X. Then it was time for us to take harit pratigya, or a green pledge, to save our environment and plant more trees, which we repeated after Pragya Tiwari of Class IX.
Our principal Sudhanya Karan gave a welcome speech and told us about the problems of deforestation, and how trees and greenery bring us calmness and positivity. “I would like all of you to adopt a small plant at home and take care of it every day,” he told us. The guests were gifted with plants too and welcomed with an address by our biochemistry teacher, S. Deepashri.
Devanshu Bhatnagar of Class XII gave a speech in Hindi about increasing pollution levels, global warming, rising sea levels and the importance of forests. The one point that lingered in my mind long after his speech was how much of India’s forest cover has got depleted. It was really alarming.
We next had a dance performance to the Tagore song Mon mor megher sangi by Adrina Biswas, who led a group of dancers from classes IX to XII.
Plants for the school
Our guests then took the stage. Arvind Parihar of the Botanical Survey of India told us about the different varieties of plants at the botanical garden in Shibpur and how various diseases can be treated using medicinal plants. He also announced that they were donating 20 plants to our school. His colleague Devendra Singh told us how glad he was to see the greenery in our school and the huge participation by our students. He asked us to visit the botanical garden someday. We got to know that there are 15,000 plants and trees of different species there.
Once Deepashri madam delivered the vote of thanks and we sang the National Anthem, it was time to go outdoors and plant some trees. All the guests from the Botanical Survey of India headed toward our school garden. We, the students, along with the teachers, planted saplings that we had brought from our homes.
We had brought plants like tulsi, marigold and mango and each of us had interesting reasons for our choice of plants. Avipsita Basu of Class XII had brought ixora chinensis which she said is an age-old Chinese traditional medicine for common cold and dysentery. Apparently, travellers had brought this species to India and cured the natives here.
Abhijay Rai of Class VI had brought a curry plant. He said that he planted one in his terrace garden three years back and that he recently noticed a sapling growing near it. “I felt affectionate towards the plant and thought of bringing it to school so it grows here,” he said.
The curry plant, too, has numerous medicinal values like reducing morning sickness, controlling diabetes, causing weight loss, healing wounds and burns etc. Tiyasa Sahana of Class XII, brought the tulsi which, too, has many benefits.
Rally for trees
Some students had made and brought placards. Hritambara Saha of Class VIII had drawn Bharat Mata planting trees and urging us to do the same. Tuhina Saha of the same class had painted on the theme “deforestation will lead us to devastation” and stressed that trees and human beings go hand in hand.
The event ended with a rally as students and teachers moved around outside the school premises, shouting “Save trees, save lives” and “Ped bachao, ped lagao!”
Now when I think back about the day, I feel nostalgic as this is my last year in school and we have celebrated many a van mahotsav and other events here together. I shall miss all the teachers and this school, where I have spent 12 years of my life. I am proud to be a student of Kendriya Vidyalaya 1, that has taught us to celebrate such socially important occasions.
The author is a Class XII student of Kendriya Vidyalaya 1