KAPURTHALA: Pushpa Gujral Science City celebrated World Ozone Day in collaboration with Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India by organizing Poster Making and Slogan writing competitions for school students. A webinar on Ozone and Climate Change was also organized in the afternoon session. Around 200 school students from all over Punjab participated. The theme of this year celebration is “global cooperation protecting life on earth.”
During the introductory remarks of the webinar Dr. Neelima Jerath, Director General Science City said that the purpose of the celebration of World Ozone Day is to create public awareness about substances that plays a significant role in the depletion of the Earth’s Ozone layer, which in turn plays a vital role in protecting life on Earth, and also to make people aware that these threats are caused by man-made chemical such as chlorofluorocarbons produced in refrigeration and air-conditioning industries. Life on Earth would not have been possible without UV layer protection. This stratospheric layer shields Earth from most of the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation. Further she said that, there is no second opinion that alleviation of public awareness on all aspects including environmental protection can gives wonderful results. Hence public awareness programme assumes a significant place among the core activities.
Prof. S Ramachandran, Space and Atmospheric Sciences Div. Physical Research Laboratory, Amhmedabad, was the key speaker at this occasion. During his talk, he highlighted the importance, sources and sinks of ozone, causes of ozone depletion in the stratosphere and recovery of global ozone. He said that Ozone, a gas that is naturally present in the atmosphere in small amounts, is vital to human wellbeing and ecosystem health. Most of the ozone resides in the upper part of the atmosphere referred to as stratosphere. Stratospheric ozone is known as good ozone due to the beneficial role it plays in absorbing the biologically harmful ultraviolet radiation, whereas the ozone in the troposphere is referred to as bad ozone that is produced by pollutant emissions from human activities.
Dr. Rajesh Grover, Director Science City present at the occasion urged the students to protect and save ozone layer by planting more and more trees, use public transport and also emphasized on the usage of re-newable sources of energy.
Result of the competition: In a Poster Making competition Anmoal Preet Kaur from Sant Prem Singh Public School Begowal was won first prize, Manveer Kaur from Govt. Sen. Sec. School Kartarpur stood second and Hansdeep Kau from Asian Public School Kapurthala achieved third prize .Beside this in slogan writing competition first prize has been received by Janvee from DAV High School Kapurthala, second prize goes to Komal from Govt. Sen. Sec. School Kartarpur and Sukhwant Kaur from Sant Avtar Singh Yadgari Sen. Sec. School Sinchewal got second prize.