World Environment Day

Pushpa Gujral Science City, in collaboration with Punjab Pollution Control Board, celebrated World Environment Day on June 5, 2020. The objective of the event was to raise awareness among participants about conservation and sustainable management of biodiversity resources. The theme for World Environment Day-2020 was “Biodiversity”. Due to ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Pushpa Gujral Science City celebrated World Environment Day on June 05, 2020 in collaboration with Punjab Pollution Control Board through online activities. About 400 students and general public participated in the event through online activities. The following online activities were organized to commemorate this day:

• A series of webinars were organized on 3rd, 4th and 5th June, 2020. The three-day webinar series focused on the theme, “Biodiversity”, and the slogan “Time for Nature”. The webinars can be accessed at PGSC’s You tube link.
• Creating awareness through social media with Messages from experts
• Biodiversity Declamation Contest (Theme: Conserving Biodiversity for Sustainable Development)
• Biodiversity Poetry Competition (Theme: Celebrate Biodiversity)

Sh. Alok Shekhar, Principal Secretary, Science, Technology and Environment, Punjab, was the Chief Guest at the occasion and in his inaugural address he emphasized on bringing changes in our lives and adopt an eco-friendly life style. He said that human actions, including deforestation, encroachment on wildlife habitats, intensified agriculture and acceleration of climate change have pushed nature beyond its limit and if we continued on this path, biodiversity loss would have severe implications for humanity, including the collapse of food and health systems. Sh. Justin Mohan, Secretary, National Biodiversity Authority, talked about the provisions in the Biological Diversity Act and lack of awareness among industries, public and traders about the concept of access and benefit sharing, which can be a big incentive for conservation and sustainable use. He emphasized that the government needs to strengthen and empower the biodiversity in the country to overcome these challenges. Dr. Satinder Singh Marwaha, PPCB Chairman said that nature provides us food to eat, air to breath and water to drink. He urged the participants to nurture the environment and also stressed on the need to improve the quality of river water. Dr. Neelima Jerath, Director General, Science City while speaking about the impact of Covid-19 on environment and bio-resources, said that human-beings are consuming natural resources beyond the carrying capacity of the earth. Thus, it calls for an urgent need to address the global environmental threats and World Environment Day was a reminder for action. Dr. Chandrika Bahadur, Director, SDG Academy spoke on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). She suggested that biodiversity, which cuts across several SDGs, could be a key strategy to achieve SDG and shared global experiences in the area.

Declamation Contest   

The competition got an overwhelming response from student and public. 97 participants in Junior category and 56 in Senior category participated from Punjab, Chandigarh and Tamil Nadu. Overall, there were 153 entries.

Result of Declamation Contest (Junior Group)

Result of Declamation Contest (Senior Group)

Poetry Competition:
The competition got an overwhelming response from student and public. 123 participants in Junior category and 107 in Senior category participated from Punjab, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Assam with many participants submitting multiple entries.  Overall, there were 247 entries.

Result of Poetry Competition (Junior Group)

Result of Poetry Competition (Senior Group)\