In consonance with the Extinction Rebellion movement across the world, the Jorhat College (Amalgamated) became the first college in Assam to contribute their mite to the movement.
Students of the college enacted street plays sang a chorus, took out a vibrant rally, displayed paintings, engaged in body art with the one-point agenda of raising environmental awareness among the masses.
The other institutions taking part in the event were Jorhat Jatiya Vidyalaya, and School for the Deaf and Dumb, Jorhat.
Inaugurating the rally, Dr Nanigopal Goswami, governing body president and former professor of Economics, JB College, said environment pollution is one of the biggest crises being faced by the world.
Goswami expressed hope that only awareness among the public would help in fighting the menace of environmental pollution.
Extinction Rebellion (abbreviated as XR) is a global environmental movement with the aim of using nonviolent civil disobedience to compel government action to avoid tipping points in the climate system, biodiversity loss, and the risk of social and ecological collapse.
The principal of the college, Dr Devabrata Sharma said, “Today’s participation in the movement comes against a backdrop of rise in global temperature which has put the lives of living organisms in peril.”
He also said, “The consequent increase in the sea level has posed an existential question for people in the coastal regions of countries.”
“The shocking level of air pollution in Delhi, Kolkata and many Indian cities has affected the lives of people very badly. The raging forest fires in Brazil and in Australia establish the fact of global environmental crisis which cannot be brushed aside with rhetoric,” he further said.
Sharma traced the cataclysmic events like the detonation of nuclear bombs; gas tragedies such as the one in Bhopal and the unbarred use of plastic as a cheap alternative have underscored the human role in the environmental crises.
“The spirited critique posed by Greta Thunberg of Sweden in the UN found its echo in the streets of Jorhat through the voices of very many Jorhat College students,” he further said.
In the prize distribution ceremony hosted by Dr Soumitra Puzari, the departments of Sociology, History & Political Science were adjudged the first, second and third best teams in the rally.
The teams were awarded cash prize.
The first, second and third positions in the chorus competition held on the occasion were won by the departments of Philosophy, Sociology & English, respectively.
And in the street play event, the first, second and third positions went to the departments of Sociology, Political Science and Education, respectively.