Five of the West India champs of the British Council’s International Climate Champion’s programme are from the city. They all come from diverse backgrounds, but their ultimate aim is the same — to create awareness about climate change.
Five of the West India champs of the British Council’s International Climate Champion’s programme are from the city. They all come from diverse backgrounds, but their ultimate aim is the same — to create awareness about climate change.
Ankur Mathur
This second-year chemical engineering student from Sinhgad College of Engineering has formed the Sinhgad Environmental Conservation Organisation — a team of dedicated students seeking to promote environment and energy conservation.
Ankur wants to get the youth involved as only they can bring about a change in society. His group conducts awareness drives to plant trees and promote the use of paper bags.
The group has also been associated with BSNL in carrying out an energy audit in one of their installations and suggesting alternative renewable sources of energy. Ankur also worked on a project at Tata Chemicals, where he designed an environment friendly,
low waste process for the manufacture of light soda ash.
Sudam Batule
An MBA student of Sinhgad Institute of Business Administration and Research in Kondhwa, Sudam wanted to do something different after his graduation in agriculture and biotechnology. His project deals with bio-energy conservation and commercialisation and his target audience includes schoolchildren.
His project, Bio-village Centre, is related to bio-energy conservation and commercialisation. It is rural-based with plans to include 10 villages under one bio-village centre. Sudam regularly conducts farmers’ meets where he encourages them to grow crops for biogas and bio-diesel production.
Prachi Telang
A third-year BSc (honours) student of physics in Fergusson College, her project saw the use of reflectors to reduce the consumption of light in various five-star hotels. She plans to make mirror and glass articles to create multicoloured patterns for lighting. Her project focuses on reduction of energy consumption at hotels.
“Almost all hotels have numerous light arrangements to create an ambience. We are trying to reduce this energy consumption by using optical arrangements instead of additional bulbs,” she says.
A group of architects from Amravati is assisting in her project.
Dipika Chordia
This young lady does not believe in the present education system. After completing standard XII, she gave up the idea of pursuing any formal degree course. Her project, ‘Serene — Mission to Survive’ aims at using renewable energy and reforestation.
“I don’t believe in an urban lifestyle. In Velhe, which is around 50km from Pune, we have a 100-acre land that we have been reforesting for the last two years. We have an eco-house where we produce our own electricity. We also have two biogas plants. Apart from that, we do organic farming and grow our own produce,” she says. Her aim is to build a community of like-minded people who believe in this way of life.
Divesh Kumar
An engineering graduate from Birla Institute of Technology and science (BITS) Pilani, Divesh is currently a fellow with Teach India initiative and is teaching at a municipal school in the city.
His project sought to sensitise low-income communities in Pune about environmental and climate change issues by working with schoolchildren belonging to these communities. He plans to spread awareness among children about environmental changes, causes behind these changes and remedies or the action
required to avert them.
Gaurav Nakhare
A standard XII student of Fergusson College, Gaurav is doing his bit by spreading awareness about the consequences of climate change.
He has been talking to various schools in the city about inculcating climate change in the syllabus. Interactive sessions, screening of films related to climate change, regular pollution under control (PUC) check are some of the ways to spread initial awareness on the subject.
Gaurav was part of Global Changemakers, another British Council programme, where he got an opportunity to interact with other changemakers who were working
towards the same cause.
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