Varsities urged to go green

New Delhi: The University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked universities to include a module on the ill effects of fireworks in the paper of Environment Studies for under graduate courses.

In a letter to Vice Chancellors of various universities, UGC secretary Jaspal S Sandhu has also sought that they should also organise forums, discussions and presentations related to hazards of fireworks and ways of reducing them. In the letter, the UGC said our planet is no longer the green planet that we inherited from our forefathers and referred to factors like uninhibited industrialisation, fossil fuel emissions which have damaged the environment.

As part of efforts to counter this damage, it added, world leaders came together at COP 21 at Paris and stressed on the importance of collective responsibility.

The Supreme Court, the UGC letter added, has also expressed serious concerns over environment health hazards and toxic fallout that fireworks pose.There is a need to educate students about the "severity of toxicity of fireworks so as to discourage their usage", the letter said.

It asked Universities to ensure that their departments and affiliated colleges should include a module on ill-effects of fireworks in the paper of Environmental Studies which has to be compulsorily studied by students for under graduate courses. UGC also asked Universities to organise forums, discussions and presentations related to hazards of fireworks and ways of reducing them. It also said students groups or teachers could undertake effective workshops, lectures or presentations in schools in surrounding areas.