Looking back at Live green, Lucknow

Lucknow: At our meetings in the TOI newsroom, we often discussed stories about the vanishing sparrow, the falling water table or the river in the city drying up. All this, and the response from our readers, drove us to put together a team and Live Green, Lucknow was visualised.
Because there is no better way to take forward any idea than involving students in it, we made schoolchildren the centre of the campaign.
We asked the participating schools to create a model to present a unique idea or concept on making the city or state more environment-friendly. The model could be on various issues related to the environment, like ensuring pollution-free air to breathe, keeping the river in your city clean, ensuring greenery, creating green energy, conserving water or recycling waste.
The enthusiasm of the schools was overwhelming and we knew we could expect a good response. However, when the models started coming in, we were amazed by the imagination, creativity and thought put into them by these young but very bright children.
Meanwhile, under the Live Green, Lucknow campaign, we not only highlighted what’s going wrong with the city’s environment but also created awareness among people and brought our readers close to nature to ensure that everyone does his or her bit to keep Lucknow green and clean. To involve more and more people in the campaign. we organised two nature trips. The first one was to Nawabganj Bird Sanctury on April 25, where participants explored the flora and fauna of the place.
Organised along with the UP forest department, the trail was an attempt to bring people closer to nature, understand the ecosystem and be sensitive to conserving nature around them.
The Biodiversity and Wildlife Conservation Lab of Lucknow University’s department of zoology and Karavan Heritage and Nature Society helped us conduct the nature trail.
Enthusiasts were guided about the birds in the sanctuary and also about the World Save The Frog Day by Amita Kanaujia of Lucknow University’s department of zoology.
Dozens of rare birds delighted the visitors. Officials and conservationists from the sanctuary were constantly guiding the visitors about the birds and plants around us. An informative short film and refreshments marked the end of the memorable trip, feedback from which was much cherished by us.
The next nature trail was at National Botanical Research Institute on June 1. The response, once again was excellent despite the June heat. Even people from outside the city became part of the event. The sessions on cultivation wall gardens and compost saw massive interest. There were suggestions from gardening enthusiasts about creating gardens in balconies of apartments. It was heartening to see children and adults participate with enthusiasm.
While the elderly participants were more focused on vermicomposting, the younger lot was more interested in aesthetic play with plants constituting the making of a vertical garden.
In the feedback shared with us, the visitors said there were various takeaways from the trip. The most important among being that plants should not be over-watered and over-fed and that anyone can make manure at home, with a little care.
By this time, the D-day drew close. The excitement at office matched with that of the children in schools. The event was going to be the first of its kind in the city.
There were 18 models that were profiled in the paper before our panel of eminent judges made their selection of the top five. Voting on SMS and Facebook was thrown open to the city for popular choice picks.
The judges, environmentalist Venkatesh Dutta, geologist Dhruv Sen Singh and educationist Amrita Dass met the students at the TOI office and asked questions, debated and provided valuable inputs to the students.
“The models prepared by the students were impressive and their passion infectious. Each team had thought of some innovative and feasible ideas on green sustainable projects. If some of these ideas are implemented, Lucknow and its neighbouring areas would certainly pioneer some of the global best practices of a SMART city,” said Amrita Dass.
Instead of five, the judges finally picked six teams to directly present their ideas before the chief minister. The winning schools also received a cash prize of Rs 10,000.
On the day of the event on June 5—marked as World Environment Day—the chief minister surprised us by staying for much longer then the 30 minutes he had initially given us.
He spoke at length about the need for maintaining an ecological balance and gave ample time to the students listening to them talk about and explain their models.
Another milestone achieved through the event was that of a Live Blog on the TOI website. Details of the event were updated by a team of TOI reporters every few minutes from the venue itself. The response to the this novel reportage was overwhelming as readers got a sense of being a virtual part of the event.
As Live Green, Lucknow becomes Live Green, UP! in the the second edition of the campaign, the ideas, the excitement and the impact is set to grow and make more and more people aware and sensitive to our environment.