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ollegestudents

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Environmental body has students taking up tree
plantation, anti-plastic dnve and energy audits
.

SHASHWAT GUPTA RAY

porters@sakaaltimes.com
Pune: Ankur Mathur, a second year student of Chemical Engineering of Sinhgad
College of Engineering, has
a vision to promote environmental awareness among
Pune youth and encourage
them to work towards having
sound environmental ethics.
"My project aims to.make
youth aware and involved
them in working for environmental harmony. An effective
way to encourage them is to
provide them with a proper
platform for interaction with
the industry and the intelligentsia," Mathur said.
As part of his project for,
the ICC 20l0,' Mathur has
founded a student-run organisation - SECO - (Sinhgad Environmental Conser-

'

sis College, Pune. "We plan

to adopt the .hillock near
ARAI, and at Sinhgad Colvation Organisation), affili- lege at Vadgaon to carry
ated with Sinhgad Institutes,
out plantation activities,"
.
Pune, which seeks to create Mathur said.
awareness about environ- Replacing plastic bags: In
ment-related issues among another project, SECO will
the youth. "SECO has pari- replace plastic bags being.
nered with many NGOs and used in shops in the college
campus with paper bags for
organisations for students
to be involved with com- free. The name and logo of
munity as well as industry- .the sponsoring companies
based projects. Students are will be printed on the bags,
also encouraged to carry out which will riot only associresearch-based activities in ate the company with envithe fields of alternate energy ronment protection, it will
sources and climate change also be a medium of publicity for them.
mitigation," he said.
Energy Audit: A group
SECO initiatives
from SECO was associated
Tree plantation: SECO with the energy audit exerhas tied up with NGO The
cise of Bharat Sanchar NiGreen Hills Group' for a gam Ltd. (BSNL), a leading
plantation drive at Hanu- telecom service provider, in
man Tekdi behind Symbio- one of their installations.
Sak~ITimes

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P:Ankur Mathur,-a student of Sinhgad College of Engineering works on his project,

Sinhgad iristitutes'
students work for
plastic-free campus
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Pune: Students of Sinhgad institutes have formed an organisation 'Sinhgad Environmental Conservation Organisation' (SECO) to db their bit
for environment.
Aiming at making the campus plasticfree, the students made
paper bags and distributed them
in.the campus shops and canteen.

cost," he said.
Ankur Mathur, member of
SECO said, "During the BSNL
energy audit, we suggested segregation of organic waste,
switching to compact fluorescent lamp (CFL), change of tube
light fittings, among others. We
might conduct an energy audit
in our campus," he said.
The Phase IT of the project involves implementation in the uni- .

Students display eco-friendly paper bags made by them

They also did an energy audit exercise for the Bharat Sanchar
N"igamLtd's(BSNL)training centIle in Chinchwad. The other initiative is a plantation drive in
Hanuman Tekdi with the Green
Hills Group, a NGO.
Nikhil Advani member of
SECO said, "The organisation
aims to make the campus plastic free." At present, telecom
provider BSNL is supporting the
cause by sponsoring to replace
3,OOlplasticbags with paper bags
over a period of one month.
"We found out that high cost
of paper bags is the major
contributor
to why past attempts to eradicate the use of
plastics bags failed. To overcome this problem, SECO will
provide paper bags to the shopkeepers for free or at minimal

versity campus in January 2011.

Also, it will involve disseminating the experience gained in
Phase I to other students.
"We plan to have a bio gas
plant. At present, the waste generated in canteens is being calculated. We will also reduce the use
of lights. Solar lightingpanel will
also be used," said Mathur;
Every Sunday, members
of SECO guided by the members of Green Hills Group,
engage in activities like plantation,
water harvesting,
plant propagation techniques
and vermicomposting.
In the second phase of this
initiative, the students will extend the plantation drives to the
Sinhgad institutes' Vadgaon
campus and involve more students, he said.

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NOVEMBER 6
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POLYTHENEbags strewn
across the campus of
their institute made a
group of students think
of putting up dustbins. It
did yield the desired
result and they thought,
let's weed out the problem from the root.
On coming to learn
that all shopkeepers on
the campus. were using
polythene bags, the students decided to distribute paper bags to them
free of cost. "We discovered in a survey on the
campus that shopkeepers
were
using
polybags
because paper bags cost
more. We decided to provide them with paper
bags free of cost with the
- help of some corporate
houses,"
said
Ankur
Mathur, president of the
Sinhgad Environmental
Conservation
Organisation (SECO), a
third-year chemical engineering student.
The students distributed paper bags" among
general stores "and stationery shops.
"Polybags are nonbiodegradable and one of

A group of students from

Sinhagad College of ,
Engineering distributed paper
bags among general stores and
stationery--shops
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the major reasons for

pollution. Over one million polyethylene bags
are used throughout the
world
every
minute.
Millions
of polybags
never make it to a landfill site. Hence the use of
such bags should be
stopped," added Mathur.
At first, the students
prepared
bags
from
newspapers
but" they
could only make about
25 per week whereas
their requirement was
about 100 per day. "Thus
we started thinking of a
different way of doing it.
We went to a few corporate houses and asked
them to sponsor us' for
our bags, and we in turn
would put their advertisements on the paper
bags, thus it would highlight the organisation's
image as being socially
and
environmentally
con~cious. Secondly, it

would also help them

project their brand image
among the student community, which is one of
the largest consumers of
various products and services,"
said
Nikhil
Advani, another member
of SECO.
The group launched
the campaign last month
and hopes it will have a
positive effect on environment.
"We have launched
the campaign and it has
been a success. Our success lies in the fact that
the shopkeepers
here
have stopped
buying
polybags -and are using
paper bags. If thingswork out fine and we
keep getting sponsorship,
we will like to carry _it
out at other plaFe~, too,
because removing plastic
bags is a big step towards
nature
conservation,"
added Advani.

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Stutfunts take on polythene

menace with paper bags

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Temperature

Relative Humidity

Forecast for today

J'IIfIIE

PUNE

LOftEGAON

Rain or thundershowers

21.9

81

94

occur in some areas

20.9

,ASItAN

cit
CLIMATE CHAMPS TO THE RESCUE
31.5

t..OHEGAON

31.6

PAStIAH

30.9

wil~

Average temperatur

87

26.6C

20.7

The International Climate Change programme, a joint effort by the British. Council and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERO
across 60 countries, invites ideas for ecological sustainability, and funds them. This year, it has highlighted 72 ideas from Indian
applicants. Out of these, six are Pune youth with innovative plans for eco-sustenance, finds Nitin Brahme

Prachl Telang
Student, BSc(Physics),
Fergusson College

Student, Sinha gad Instt of

Business Admin & Research

Her project Reduction in energy consumption through use of

reflectors in places where excess
lighting is used for creating ambience, such as hotels. She will also
work on planning of water har- .
vesting plants according to the
water consumption of buildings.
Essentially, initiating a shift to
constructing eco-friendly buildings. She is working with Architect Dr D K Deshmukh at the
state government's Amrawati
Convention Centre.

His project

'Biovillage Centre:
Bio-energy conservation and
Commercialisation'. He is taking
awareness camps for farmers
about cultivation of bio-fuel
plants. He aims to develop rural
entrepeneneurship for eco-friendIy projects, create employment in
backward areas by bringing technology and environment concerns together. including rural
tourism. He has founded 'Rurban
Greenhands'. He works in
Prabhuwadgaon, Ahmadnagar.

Ankur Mathur
Student, Sinhagad Institute
of Engineering
His project Youth Environmental Activities. It includes plantation drives, and initiatives t 0 find
eco-solutions for Pune youth. He
is undertaking a plantation drive
with Green Hills Organisation at
Chatuhshrungi Hill. He is the
founder of the Sinhagadh Environmental Conservation Drgani.
sation (SEeD), which is involved
in replacing plastic bags with paper on campus. He has got sponsorship from the Bharat Sanchar
Nigam Limited for this project.

Divesh Kumar

Dipika Chord"

Teacher, Late Sitaram Abaji

English Medium School

Bachelor of Science,
Fergusson College

Dropped out of school, after

Std XII

H"asproject'Sensitising
low-income communities in Pune towards environmental and climate
change issues'. This involves
increasing the knowledge of
school kids about the environment, and motivating them to
work towards stopping climate
changes from happening in the
first place. Divesh is teaching at
the PMC-run Late Sitaram Abaji.
English School through the Teach
India Foundation

Her project: 'Vehicular pollution: Exploring the challenges in

implementing pollution control
and and awarding Pollution under Control (PUC) certificates.'
Prachi is observing factors that
can lead to regular PUC checks in
Pune city. She is working on ways
of bringing changes and improvements in PUC issuing practices
and servicing of vehicles to reduce emissions. She has also held
an awareness workshop with the
Rickshaw Panchayat in the city

.Her project: 'Eco-sustanable

Community'. She conducts ecoexperiments in Dhanep an'd Velhe. She and her family took over
barren land there. It includes re- .
forestation drives like planting
2,000 mango trees, 3,120 cashew
trees and 500 bamboo plants,
along with 20,000 different trees,
"the fruits of which will sustain
us in the future," she says. She set
up a way of producing both wind,
solar energy and bio-gas plants,
.and self-watering pots for plants.

AFTER HRS.

I'm not foolish to

pitch myself against
! Bachchan: Hrithik

D A I LY NEW S & A N A LY'S I S

PAGE 19
PUNE, MONDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2010

PUBLISHED

FROM PUNE,

MUMBAI,

BANGALORE,

AHMEDABAD

& JAIPUR

City'S young guns are

clil11ate change champs
.

Five of the West India champs

of the British Council's International Climate Champion's
programme are from the city.
.They all come from diverse
backgrounds, but their ultimate aim is the same - to create awareness about climate
change.

Sudam Batule
AnMBAstudentof Sinhgad
Institute of Business Administration
and Research in
Kondhwa, Sudam wanted to do
something different after his
graduation in agriculture and
biotechnology
Hii project
deals with bio-energy conservation and commercialisation.'
and his target
audience
includes schoolchildren.
His project, Bio-village Centre, is related to bio-energy
conservation and commercialisation. It is rural-based with

Priyanka Naithani

Ankur Mathur
This second-year chemical'
engineering student from Sinhgad Co)lege of Engineering
has formed the Sinhgad Environmental Conservation Or>'
ganisation - a team of dedicated students
seeking to
promote environment
and
energy conservation,
Ankur wants to get the
youth involved as only they can
bring about a change in society. His group conducts awareness drives to plant trees and
promote the use of paper bags,
The group has also been associated with ~NL in carrying out an energy audit in one
of their installations and suggesting alternative renewable
sources of energy. Ankur also
worked on a project at Tata
. Chemicals, where he designed
an environment
friendly;
low waste process for the man, ufacture of light soda ash,

.plans to include 10 villages under one bio-village centre. Suclam regularly

conducts
farmers' meets where he encourages them to grow crops'
for biogas and bio-diesel
production,
Prachi Telang
A third-year BSe (honours)
student of physics in Fergusson College, her project saw the
use of reflectors to reduce the
consumption 'of light in vari ousfive-starhotels.
She plans to make BRITISH
mirror and glass
articles to create
multicoloured patterns for lighting. Her project
focuses
on reduction
of
energy consumption at hotels.
'Almost all hotels have numerous light" arrangements
to create an ambience. We are
trying to reduce this energy
consumption by using optical
arrangements
instead of additional bulbs," she says. A
group of architects
from
Amravati is assisting in her
project:

lieve in the present education

system.
After completing
standard xn, she gave up the
idea of pursuing any formal
degree course. Her project,
'Serene-- Mission to Survive'
aims at using renewable energy and reforestation.
"I don't believe in an urban
lifestyle. In Velhe, which is
. around 50km from Pune, we
have a lOO-acre land that we
have been reforesting for the
Gaurav Nakhare
last two years. We have an ecoA standard XII student of
house where we Fergusson College, Gaurav is
COUNCIL produce our own doing his bit by spreading
electricity. We also awareness about the consehave two biogas
quences of climate change.
plants. Apart from
He has been talking to var- .
that, we do organic farming
ious schools in the city about
and grow our own produce,"
inculcating climate change in
she says. Her aim is to build a the syllabus, Interactive sescommuriity of like-minded
sions, screening of films repeople who believe in this way lated to climate. change, reguof life.
lar pollution under control
(PUC) check are some of the
. Divesh Kumar'
ways to spread initial awareAn engineering
graduate
ness on thesubject.
from Birla Institute of TechGaurav was part of Global
nology and science (BITS) Pi- Changemakers,
_another
lani, Divesh is currently a fel- British Council programme,
low with Teach India initiative
where he got an opportunity
and is teaching at a municipal
to interact with other changeschool in the city.
makers who were working
Hisproject sought to sensi- towards the same cause.

CHALLENGE

Dipika Chordia
This young lady does not be-

--t-

Sakaal Times
Sunday, March 28, 2010
www.sakaaltimes.com

.f

W;'-,
r, _

ACTS

Candlelight vigil

DOING THEIR BIT TO SA.VE PLANET EARTH:

Students

of Sinhagad

College at Vadgaon

Dhayri observe the Earth Hour on Saturday by switching off lights and lighting candles.

Students from the Sinhgad

College of Engineering, Pune
- - took part in a candle light vigil
on the occasion of Earth Hour on
March 27. The event was held at
the Sinhgad Technical Education
Society (STES)campus in
Wadgaon Budruk. Over 300
participants took part in the
vigil, held between 8.30 pm and
9.30 pm. Lights were also
switched off on the campus

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during the. period.