Take online- School principal made students fall in love with nature

BHOPAL: Encouraging the students to save the environment and doing their bit for nature, a school principal of Government Naveen Middle School of a small village Lendagondi of Multai, has taken up the approach to make each child care for one plant, hereby, creating a lush green garden inside the school campus within 10 years. The school is now home to a number of local birds and butterflies that had otherwise left the area.

Sunildas Vaishnav, headmaster of the school decided to plant trees in his school back in 2009 and decided to involve the students for them to develop a sense of responsibility towards the environment.

“While I was praying for a school, I also wanted a school that brought kids close to nature. I didn’t just want four walls and black-board, I wanted a place where children could see plants growing into trees, for them to have affection towards nature and where they could realize that it was in their hands to reverse the damage that we had done to nature”, said Vaishnav.

“It was then that I got seeds and saplings for the open area where there was no classroom and converted it into a garden. I brought trees like neem, ashoka and saptaparni as they are shade giving trees. We have also planted some rose bushes and local flowering trees to beautify the campus”, he added.

After planting trees, Vaishnav decided to entrust the responsibility of taking care of the trees to the students.

“When I hand over the responsibility of plants to students, they feel interested in coming to school and also develop affection with the garden. That was my main agenda. The children have become so attached to the garden that they even visit the school after passing out”, he said.

Vaishnav further said that the school has now become home to sparrows and the students have made special arrangements to give them water by placing mugs and buckets of water for them.


“Once the threes grew, sparrows started building their nests on them. When the school starts at 7 am, children are able to spot a number of birds in the school campus and there are a few classes where there are sparrow nests. I also encourage the children to throw crumbs of chapattis and bread and rice from their tiffin for the birds. We also place water in the garden for the birds to drink from”, he said.

Because of the efforts of the headmaster the studnets realized their responsibility towards nature and many of them also planted neem and saptaparni trees in their own courtyards.