The Hindu              07.01.2014

300 schools get access to green centre

Asha Sridhar

An environmental information dissemination centre (EIDC), a central resource centre for school students, has been opened for students and teachers from schools that are a part of the National Green Crops (NGC).

The centre, which has been set up at a Chennai Corporation Middle School in Choolai, is the first EIDC in the city, and has already been set up in 10 districts during the previous academic year by the department of environment, said the centre in-charge and NGC district co-ordinator, G.Thangaraj.

“It is a centre where students and teachers from NGC schools in the city can learn about environment-related topics such as pollution and energy conservation,” he said. There are around 300 such schools in the city.

Teachers to be trained

The centre has a resource room — with books, multimedia and a television — that can house up to 60 people. It also has a lab where teachers will be trained to use soil, water and air testing kits.

“The trained teachers will in turn teach the students and NGC schools will be given one set each,” he said, adding that they had already trained 50 teachers.

The centre will be open to Chennai Corporation, government, government-aided and private schools that are part of NGC.

Joseph Patrick, an NGC co-ordinator at a government-aided school, said the centre can be a common meeting ground for environment-related activities for school students.

Mr. Thangaraj said the centre would be used to conduct training and seminars and students could be brought there in turns.

Compost pit, medicinal garden, next

They are also planning to display models on rainwater harvesting, and set up a vermi-compost pit and medicinal plant garden on the premises. The centre is stocked with a set of telefilms and books given by the department of environment and ministry of environment and forests.

Some NGOs are also involved in the centre, said Mr. Thangaraj. He said it would be fully functional by the next academic year.

The centre was inaugurated in December 2013, by the director of environment H. Malleshappa in the presence of other officials, said Mr. Thangaraj.

The Hindu              02.01.2014

Corporation finally gets to tap gas from biogas plant

On Tuesday, after a long wait the Coimbatore Corporation finally began tapping gas from the biomethanation plant near the Amma Canteen in Saravanampatty.

Mayor S.M. Velusamy inaugurated the facility at the budget canteen in the presence of Commissioner G. Latha, Deputy Commissioner S. Sivarasu, North Zone Chairman P. Rajkumar and a few others.

The members of the self-help group managing the canteen kitchen will use the gas, generated from decaying food and vegetable waste, to cook breakfast and lunch.

According to sources, the Corporation supplying the gas would help it save on three-fourth of a commercial LPG cylinder on a daily basis. The Corporation supplies an LPG cylinder a day and that costs Rs. 1,000.

The women members at the kitchen cook 1,200 idlis a day for breakfast and 300 plates of sambar rice and as many plates of curd rice.

The sources said that the civic body would at present be able to save on three-fourth of a cylinder by using the biogas. In about two months, it would be able to save on a cylinder as the volume of gas generated would increase.

The Corporation had built the biogas plant at Rs. 10 lakh as part of the project to rely more on green fuel. The plant that used 500 kg food and vegetable waste a day had the capacity to generate 25 cubic metre gas a day.

It has three chambers – an inlet tank, a digester tank and an outlet tank, from where the gas is tapped. It takes 35 – 40 days for the gas to be generated. Once the gas was generated, the process would continue, without any human intervention, said Selvaraj of Nirmal Biogen Technology, the company that had constructed the plant.

The Corporation sources said that the civic body was using the biomethanation technology to fire a community kitchen in Kamaraj Nagar and a crematorium in the city.