Mangaluru: In a green initiative aimed at promoting environmental awareness and biodiversity, a senior forest officer has offered financial incentives to students participating in a fruit park project at a rural school in Dakshina Kannada district. Assistant conservator of forests (ACF), Moodubidire, P Sridhar has announced plans to develop a fruit park at the Govt Upgraded Primary School in Kuthlur, Belthangady taluk. He has promised to personally reward students who successfully plant and nurture saplings with Rs 200 each.Sridhar has also pledged to sponsor the monthly salary of one of the school’s teachers, Rs 8,000, and distribute notebooks among the students.
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Sridhar told TOI that the forest department would establish the fruit park in collaboration with the school’s Vanasiri Eco Club. Students will play an active role in planting, nurturing and maintaining a variety of fruit-bearing trees. “Students from class IV onwards will be encouraged to adopt and care for a sapling,” he said.The school has nearly two acres of barren land, which will be used for the project. The forest department will supply 50 fruit-bearing saplings from its nursery in Kuthlur, and planting is expected to begin shortly. The initiative was announced during a Vanamahotsava programme organised at the school on Thursday, with participation of officials from the forest department’s Moodubidire subdivision and members of the school’s Vanasiri Eco Club.Stressing the importance of inculcating environmental awareness among children, he said the initiative would provide students with hands-on exposure to conservation and biodiversity. “Govt schools have a strong track record of producing successful leaders and senior public officials,” Sridhar said, adding that such initiatives could also help attract more students to rural government schools.
