Green Cities

Green Cities Success & Earth Day in India

Between late April and mid May, Earth Day Network India ran their green cities initiative to encourage environmentalism across India. The Green Cities initiative engaged forty-six cities across India to individually find a way to teach and create environmentally conscious practices at the local level. Examples of some of these engagements included visiting local schools to engage youth on the rapid environmental decimation happening right in their backyards, using a play in a city square to inform lunch goers about how littering harms the environment, and using the power of social circles created by local nonprofits and ministries to educate adults on environmentally conscious practices at home. The cities, which contain brilliant environmental activists that Earth Day Network India has recognized, include the following.

Earth Day Network India Green Cities Award Recipients:

  • Ahmedabad- where an organization promoted herbal gardens and promoting a low carbon lifestyle amongst women;
  • Bangalore- where a social enterprise worked on the Recycle Paper initiative;
  • Chennai- where a professor used puppets as a means of communicating environmental messages to elementary youth;
  • Jodhpur & Jaipur- where awareness of aviary conservation flourished;
  • Kanpur & Lucknow- for general improved awareness of environmental issues;
  • Kolkata- Green for life foundation’s work, and using innovative technology to clean Rabindra Sarobar and the Ganga;
  • Mumbai- for a theatre project on #Trees4Earth to help communicate the importance of trees and forests to tribal children;
  • Pune- for bringing together multiple stakeholders (students & business owners) to combine efforts for a greener city;
  • Nagpur- citizen outreach programs to fight pollution and global warming;
  • Raipur- students were encouraged to adopt a low carbon lifestyle;
  • Thiruvananthapuram- promoting community urban farming.

India is the world’s largest democracy with a population of over 1.2 billion people, and as such is at risk of rapid environmental degradation. It is important for all capable nonprofits to work towards educating as many Indian nationals as possible to help mobilize an environmental movement to prevent them from practices that harm the environment. Programs like Green Cities protect their nation which possesses so much natural beauty. Earth Day Network India strives to be an even bigger part of that solution presently and in the ongoing future.