THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Wetland Schooling, a community-based educational and awareness programme on wetlands for students has kicked off at Vellayani— the second largest wetland and freshwater lake in Kerala. The programme, which is being rolled out by Climatehood— a youth climate fraternity— offers wetland walk, bird watching, wetland cleaning. On the occasion of World Wetlands Day on February 2, Climatehood organised the first-ever wetland schooling session for the students of All Saints’ College, Thiruvananthapuram.
As many as 45 participants including the MSc students of the environment sciences department of the college took part in the session, which was the first offline session being organised after the pandemic outbreak. Co-founder of Climatehood Bharat Govind said the main aim of the programme is to raise awareness on the prevailing issues faced by wetlands and create a sense of responsibility among different generations for sustainable preservation of these valuable ecosystems.
“Wetlands and Water is the theme of this year’s World Water Day 2021. The campaign highlights the contribution of wetlands to the quality and quantity of fresh water on our planet. By organising this, we want to sensitise all generations, not only the student fraternity, on the importance of conservation of wetlands,” said Bharat.
According to co-founder of Climatehood Adarsh Prathap said that the wetland schooling activity would be organised every Sunday for three hours and anybody interested can take part. “The main highlight of this initiative is the practical involvement of the participants. There is no point in conducting such awareness programmes online.
The participants reach the spot at 6am and it is a more enriching experience than any classroom session,” said Adarsh. He mentioned that the initiative is getting good response from the students. “The panchayat authorities are also supportive and the participants also get the opportunity to interact with experts from the field,” he added.