D.A.V.PUBLIC SCHOOL, THERMAL COLONY, PANIPAT GOT GREEN SCHOOL AWARD 2009 FROM SHARMILA TAGORE

Stealing the show from the so-called elite institutions, schools from across the country on Saturday vied for honours to clinch who was the 'greenest of all' at the Green Schools Awards. Emerging as real change-makers, the annual environmental audit of schools under the aegis of Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), over 5,000 schools participated in the event.

Of these, 500 were shortlisted for the finals and the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Diskhit, and chairperson of Central Board of Film Certification, Sharmila Tagore, felicitated the winners.

Schools from remote areas like Andaman and Nicobar and Sikkim to places like Andhra Pradesh, Punjab and Maharashtra showed an outstanding commitment to creating a clean and green environment.

According to the coordinator of environment education, CSE, Sumita Dasgupta, "Especially in Delhi, we are pretty disappointed with the elite schools. They seem to be attached to such programmes in a very superficial manner. In the first year, there was a lot of participation but very few made it to the top list, and in the second year, they completely dropped out. Not that it made much of a difference to us since they comprise just about two to three per cent but their students miss out on the real picture on education and interaction."

So who are the winners? The awards are divided into state and national level. At the national level, the top new school award was bagged by DAV Public School (Thermal Colony), Panipat, Haryana, for championing a green environment on their campus while Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Prakasam, Andhra Pradesh, came second for effective management of natural resources in the school. The third prize went to Sat Paul Mittal School, Ludhiana, Punjab, for conserving water on the campus and for 100% rainwater harvesting.

The top accolades were for those who persisted with their intent to ensure a clean environment over a longer period and have emerged as changemakers. The winner this year has been Anubhuti School, Jalgaon, Maharashtra, which has been successfully using solar energy for 14.8% of its total energy consumption. The runner-up was Woodland Overseas School, Hoshiarpur, Punjab, for its sanitation vigil while Delhi-based St George's School, Alaknanda, took the third spot for its effort in achieving 100% water recycling on the campus.

The second and third toppers from Delhi are Salwan Public School (morning), Old Rajinder Nagar, and Ramjas School,
Pusa Road.