Pics: Abhijith N Kolpe

Daijiworld Media Network – Mangaluru (ANK)

Mangaluru, Oct 7: The students and teachers of Dakshina Kannada zilla panchayat higher primary school situated at Bokkapatna are leading by example with greenery around their campus, growing various types of vegetables and nurturing plants.

Vegetables and fruits are grown in the surroundings of the school. The greenery is now extended to the terrace garden where they have grown Mangaluru spinach. The teachers have bought discarded boxes from scrap shops and nurtured various types of vegetables such as Mangaluru spinach, palak, spinach, ladies finger, long beans, radish and many more.

The young children are showing a lot of interest towards nurturing the plants by coming early to the school and adding manure to the plants on their own. Certain portions of the garden given to a group of students are being handled by themselves.

Even the teachers, headed by its headmistress Dresil Lilly Menezes, teachers Kalpana R, Stella Moras, Asha, Usha, Madhavi, and SDMC president Geetha have joined hands in growing vegetables in the school yard. Papaya, mango and banana is also grown. The vegetables are used for the afternoon lunch for the students of the school. The vegetables are sometimes auctioned and the income earned is used to buy fertilizers required for the plants.

Dresil Lilly Menezes says, “We started the terrace garden two years ago with the support of president of Lions Club Kankanady Padil, Veni Maroli and Karunakar MHK. Even Madhav Ullal has helped for a year by providing a workshop on growing vegetables and giving out information on the manure to be used for the growth of vegetables. President of academic committee Mohan Shetty, Mohan Kulal, Dinesh, Prakash, and elected Representatives Jagadish Shetty also deserve credit. The contribution made by Asha Nagraj Lions Club, Netravati, Lions Club and Smart City needs to be appreciated. Owner of Green Door, Santhosh has distributed manure and mud to nurture the vegetables.”

One of the students said, “We are very happy to grow vegetables in our school and work for it every morning. It gives us happiness and our teachers encourage us to do so. The vegetables we grow are used for our lunch which are very delicious.”