Al-Khor Community Gujarati Parivar
Events and News
By: Abid Bohra
Environment Ambassadors of TerraQuiz 2007
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and Hero Honda Motors Ltd., the world's largest two wheeler manufacturer, in association with the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) announced the winners of the 9th TerraQuiz 2007, a one of its kind international inter-school environment quiz competition conducted in New Delhi, India.
This quiz programme is an interesting pedagogical tool for students. Being an extremely effective medium to convey crisp messages in a short period of time, it contains an inherent element of knowledge and competition. Its unique structure questions and educates students and viewers simultaneously.
In a keenly contested competition among 32 schools, both from India and abroad, Moiz Abid Bohra and Sreelakshmy Koonath from Al-Khor International School - Indian Stream emerged as winners and were crowned the "Hero Honda Green Ambassadors" for 2007-2008. The title confers upon the winners a responsibility to undertake initiatives to broaden and strengthen awareness on environmental issues among fellow students. Close contenders were Delhi Public School, Bokaro-Jharkhand, SDS school Thane-Mumbai and Indian High School - Dubai which emerged as the first, second and third runners up respectively.
The TerraQuiz 2007 is a culmination of India's only environmental examination, the GREEN Olympiad. This year, the GREEN Olympiad witnessed participation from over 80,000 school children, from 1400 plus schools from across the country and from Indian Schools in the Middle East and South East Asia. Moiz Abid Bohra secured 73 marks in the GREEN Olympiad standing 1st in Qatar closely followed by Sreelakshmy Koonath who stood 2nd with 72 marks.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr. R.K.Pachauri, Director General, TERI (Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize 2007) said, "This programme has an enormous potential for transforming Indian society towards greater environmental consciousness and support for sustainable development. It is really the children of today who would be the leaders of tomorrow, and in their role as "Hero Honda Green Ambassadors", they can be major agents of change for a sustainable future".
Extending his congratulations to the winners, Mr. Pawan Munjal, Managing Director and CEO, Hero Honda Motors Ltd. said, "We wish the Hero Honda Green Ambassadors all the best in their efforts to carry the message of environmental awareness among fellow students. We believe in the potential of this project to help spread environmental awareness amongst the next generation and are delighted to partner with TERI on this initiative. It is indeed a laudable endeavor which, over the years has continued to encourage children, teachers and parents to join hands for a cleaner, greener future".
The TerraQuiz this year was a combination of fun, entertainment and interactive programs for the school children. In keeping with the tradition of having a popular television personality to host the show - the anchor for TerraQuiz 2007 was Manpreet Brar, a well known TV personality, model and Former Miss India.
Mr. R Mehta, Advisor MoEF while congratulating the winners was confident that India, through such initiatives, would positively have a well-informed and a "Better Tomorrow" for our future generations.
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