Media Release
Manipal, Aug 18: Nearly 600 children, from schools in and around Mangaluru, were present in the Marena Sports Complex on Saturday, to take part in a culture fest organized by Manipal School. Tirangaa 2019 had already been delayed once due to heavy rains but nothing was going to stop the children this time. The children eagerly alighted from their school buses and thronged towards the sports complex, supercharged to take part in a number of creative competitions.
The theme this year, and aptly so, was ‘Climate Change- Awareness and Action, It’s time to be the change’. The aim was to highlight the global and national climate change crisis and to encourage children to think of ways to combat the problem.
The day started with a prayer and a simple but poignant ceremony of lighting the lamp. The chief guest for the day was Dr Shivakumar Magada, professor of aquatic biology, who has more than two decades of academic experience. The dean of MCODS Dr Dilip G Naik; PTA president, Arun Raj Rodrigues and principal Anuradha Shivaram were inaugurators of the event.
The chief guest, Dr Magada was the perfect choice, as those in his line of work see the effects of climate change every day. His special achievements include the establishment of a new research station named CARPS, and a mobile soil and water laboratory. He has handled numerous projects and his written works include many research papers, books and plays.
In his speech, he stressed that humans have to intervene in order to delay the disastrous effects of global warming. Smart, quick and simple solutions have to be found to combat global warming. He said he wanted to see kids spearheading efforts in cutting down paper and plastic usage. As soon as the formalities drew to a close, Manipal School volunteers patiently steered the excited gaggle of students into various conference rooms to kick-start the competitions.
This year, 18 schools participated in the competitions. Colour me, dress me up, recycle relay, creative collage and the climate time machine were the kind of challenges that had a creative side to them, while still stressing on the theme, environment. For the older students, the challenges were much tougher, in ‘Climate Ditty’ they had to compose songs in a language of their choice but the lyrics had to reflect their concern for the environment. In another challenge - Champions of Change, participants were given a topic and had one hour to prepare a ‘for’ or ‘against’ case study. There was another event called ‘Climate ED’, where energetic orators expressed their love towards mother earth through their speech based on the theme, ‘This is how I show- I love my Earth’.
All in all, there were nearly 11 challenges the children had to face and each challenge focused on the climate change crisis the world is going through. From forest fires to floods, from landslides to droughts, 2018 and 2019 have particularly seen severe and extreme weather patterns. Mangaluru too was hit by a severe water crisis followed by incessant rains.
According to principal, Anuradha Shivaram, educating children is the only solution for a better, more stable future. Children, she said, have an amazing capacity to understand issues; they have immense talent and imagination to come up with simple solutions for complex problems. Providing a fun platform like Tirangaa to showcase their talents was a natural extension of the school’s way of working, she said.
After a busy morning of competitions followed by a snack, tired but happy children clambered back into their school buses while clutching their medals, trophies and memories.