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MILESTONES
Global Environment Youth Convention at
Turin, Italy, 2002
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CLEAN-India had once again the privilege of being
invited to participate in the Global Environment Youth
Convention in Turin, Italy in June 2002. The
Global Environment Youth
| Convention Year 2000 is a world-wide
environmental project run by the International Institute for
Industrial Environment Economics at Lund University, together
with Caretakers of the Environment International in Sweden. The
Convention aims to create a world-wide network of young people
who can share and spread their knowledge of preventive
environmental strategies locally and globally. |
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Alps, considered
as one of the most beautiful & fabulous natural realms on planet
Earth and what a better place, than this, to inspire the
youth, the age which marks the transition of the child to the
adult. A time when maturity is accompanied with innocence & the
period when the views of a person are established & one changes
the way of looking at things.
And situated high
up in these Alps was Pracatinat, where we, the youth
representatives from India were to stay. It was about 2 hrs
journey from Turin, the historical capital of Italy. We arrived in
Turin on Jun 29th , 2002. How these six days of the
convention were to pass, we had no idea?
It all began with
rounds of interview in mid-April, held by Development Alternatives
where we four were selected. Our team consisted of 4 students (NPS
Premson from Kodaikanal, Nitin Purwar from Jhansi & Jaspreet
Randhawa & Akshay Goyal from Delhi) & two teachers Ms Rekha
Pundir & Ms. Gunjan Doogar who directed us throughout.
We then began the
project on a never before heard term which was also the main theme
of the convention & went as ‘sustainable mobility & ICT’
(information-communication-technology). After reading & being
briefed about this topic we started our project under the sub
topic of ‘biodiversity’. The title of our project was decided to
be ‘Sustainable Mobility Options for Conserving Biodiversity’. It
consisted of four case studies regarding the effects of mobility &
ICT on the biodiversity of the particular region, & covered
different parts of India. They were Kodaikanal, the Orcha forest
reserve, the Delhi Ridge forest, & Rajaji national park. The
presentation was to be done by a puppet show accompanied by
powerpoint slides. We planned to incorporate the striking feature
of all the regions
On reaching the
Turin airport, on 29th June morning we were greeted by
friendly co-delegates from different countries, each one eagerly,
awaiting the inauguration of the convention. And henceforth began
the fabulous seven days of learning which were peppered by lots of
fun in between. The sight that awaited our arrival in Pracatinat
was bewildering & the surroundings looked as if they had come
straight out a beautiful calendar, depicting breath taking natural
scenes.This Pracinat (initially a very weird sounding name &
hardly pronounceable) was surrounded by a natural park & had
facilities for lots of adventure sports, ranging from trekking,
mountain biking to boulder & wall climbing. The snow covered
mountain tops, tall conifers, cold breeze & colourful meadows
which we saw were enigmatic & seemed like a dream to us. The cool
wind that blew into our faces, when one stepped out of the
building brought us into a state of temporary trance. The varied
flora ranging from tall pines to flat meadows dotted by colourful
flowers struck the onlooker. The whole place envisaged like a
wonderland but sadly without the ‘fairies’ & their magic wands! |
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The presentation
of projects by various delegations was accompanied by workshops
& lectures on sustainable development, solar energy, mobility,
ICT etc. & most of the free time was spent in social gatherings,
cultural exchanges & interactions with other delegates who had
come from more than 50 countries, spanning the continents of
Asia, Americas, Africa & Europe.
Our delegation’s presentation was a “huge” success. Our
hard work was highly appreciated we were selected
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Our puppet presentation at GEYC |
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few to present our project once again in front of a large
audience on the last day.
And after performing
puppet show twice, the demand for the Indian theatrical skills was
so high that we even made a short skit on “Biodiversity in
Pracatinat” and included our foreign friends who had never done
such skits before to perform!
There was a lot to
learn & even some to teach in these seven days. And few incidents
will always remain imprinted in our memory. One of the most
influencing & inspiring moments was when, during the nature trek,
the French delegates unintentionally & in a foreign country,
picked up used, dirty plastic glasses thrown carelessly inside the
natural park & put them in their pockets to be disposed off later.
A feat hardly imagined by us and even some of the others, which
displayed their dedication & passion to make Earth a better place.
The times when the car drivers used to stop their cars, & wait
patiently, to let the pedestrians (who in this case were us,
obviously) cross the road, was a heart warming & unforgettable
gesture. This must have been a common day incident in Turin, but a
very rare occasion in India. Guess some of the drivers here should
learn a bit from the Italians. And obviously the level of
cleanliness was another of the observations which left me
flabbergasted. The only garbage to be seen must have been
cigarette butts.
The ‘unified’
Indian delegation which consisted of some more members other than
us was, was a wonderful sight to see. And later in the evening the
application of Indian henna and ‘Bindis’ looked as if something
out of this world was going on with Non-Indians waiting for hours
to be the ‘privileged’ ones to get the Indian tattoo ( as they
called it) imprinted on their hands.
One of the most
interesting & memorable event was the ‘special day ceremony’ held
on 2nd July in fort Festrenellee, one of Europe’s
longest fort. This ceremony consisted of the “flag march” of all
the participating countries & “Earth ceremony” whereby a member
from each country contributed a pot full of earth from the native
country & spoke a sentence in their vernacular language. This
symbolized to us the coming together of the young & the old ,
regardless of their nationhood, origin, race, sect or sex to fight
for the common cause of preserving the environment. Here the
“Youth declaration”; consisting of recommendations of the youth,
was also adopted. This will be carried over to the Earth summit to
be held later this year in Johannesburg, by the Italian
authorities.
All good things
come to an end, & so did this convention. How time flies, one can
never guess. Everybody prepared themselves for the return flight,
& with emotions running high, we departed on 4th July
for Turin. The convention as a whole was an enlightening
experience. With us we have not only brought back the memories,
anecdotes & stories but also learnt a lot & brought the
recommendations of the youth from around the globe, one which
exhorts & encourages us to be eco-friendly & environmentally
conscious & to do our part for our mother earth however small that
it may be. As well as to be responsible & help envisage & maintain
Global harmony, peace & co-operation without which sustainable
world is impossible. And to do all this is necessary &
indispensable for us but also for the welfare of the future
generations. To preserve the earth lies in our hands & it is we as
an individual who make the difference………
“We, the youth of
the world, are here and will be everywhere, both today and
tomorrow, to seek the best ways to improve life and maintain a
just and equitable global development which does not compromise
the life of our planet.”- quoted from the ‘youth declaration GEYC
2002’
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