Minister of State, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Babul Supriyo in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on Monday said that his ministry coordinates a central sector scheme namely 'Environment Education, Awareness and Training' with an objective to promote environmental awareness among all sections of the society and to mobilize people's participation for conservation of environment.
Through the National Green Corps programme, which is one of the components of this scheme, about one lakh fifty thousand Ecoclubs have been established in schools/colleges across the country and nearly 35 lakh students are actively involved in the programmes related to environment protection and conservation, the statement added.
The 'Green Good Deeds' initiative is about simple, practical steps that students/teachers/citizens can perform in their day-to-day life towards protection of environment.
The Ecoclubs have been a centre stage for various environment protection and conservation activities like conducting cleanliness drives as part of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, plantation drives, awareness on waste minimisation, waste segregation, recycling and reuse etc.
Various environment awareness programmes are being undertaken by the students like minimizing the use of single-use plastic, celebrating green Diwali, making of eco-friendly idols of Ganesh and seed balls, adopting water bodies, beach cleng, etc.
( With inputs from ANI )