Army launches ‘School Chalo’ operation in South Kashmir

New Delhi, November 6 : Taking a cue from this operation, far off in Rainpora, a village located in remote South Kashmir, the troops finally managed to convince parents to send their wards to study and two local teachers to impart them education. Attired in a cardigan which read ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, Rafiq Ahmed, a local teacher, is busy teaching students from a locality near Rainpora. “I am a teacher and I am given the task by the God Almighty to impart education to my students and I am only performing my duty,” he said. Colonel Dharmendra Yadav, who commands a unit in Anantnag, has been carrying forward the command of his GoC and is personally engaging with parents to ensure that children at least attend the community schooling. “We are trained for a situation and collapse of an education system is also a situation that needs to dealt. Army has risen to the occasion and will ensure that the children are imparted with knowledge,” Col Yadav said as he shook hands with a small child. The army has also started “Naujawan Club” where children and youth get a chance to display their talent in sports. “The point is to keep them away from anti-social elements and I am glad that many come here to play all sorts of games or access the Internet to know about the rest of world. It is encouraging to see the enthusiasm amongst these children,” Col Yadav said in his unit at Larkhipora. Kashmir has seen a virtual collapse of educational institution and also the burning down of at least 31 schools by miscreants in various parts of the Valley. Citing the example of Army Goodwill School at Pahalgam, Gen Narula said “for the students of the only fully residential school in the Valley which has been running classes from 6th to 12th class, Kitab ke Dushman are Kashmir ke Dushman (enemies of books are enemies of Kashmir).” Recently, Muzzafar Wani, father of Burhan Wani, had expressed “deep pain” over the burning down of schools in the Valley and made a fervent appeal to those behind it to refrain from targeting educational institutions. “As a teacher, whenever a school is burnt down, my heart is set on fire. This is not right. Whosoever is responsible for this is doing no good to the society. A society without any education is lifeless. They do not have any identity,” Wani said and made it clear that he was making this statement as a teacher and not as any leader. In the first international conference on biodiversity held in the national capital, about 900 delegated from 60 countries are deliberating on the issue of conservation of agro-biodiversity. Stating that each nation is adopting different ways to protect agro-biodiversity, Modi said, “It would be appropriate if we prepare a register to keep a record of all such practices and then do research to find out which practices need to be promoted.” He talked about the negative impact of science and technology and suggested “audit of development of science”. “Science and technology is important for addressing malnutrition, hunger and poverty, but we will see to that how technology is impacting us...we need to be alert on negative impact of technology,” he said, while citing example of usage of pesticide hindering honeybee in pollination process. On the extinction of genetic resources, Modi said 50-150 species are getting extinct every day despite adoption of recommendation of the 1992 biological diversity convention. “In the coming years, there is threat of extinction of one out of eight birds and one fourth of animals. We will have to change our thinking. We need to focus on conserving our current resources and also strengthening it. All countries will have to learn from each other. This will happen when we focus on research in the area of agro-biodiversity,” he said. Elaborating on the richness of India’s biodiversity, Modi said there are more than 47,000 plant species and over 89,000 animal species, besides over 8,100 km of coastal areas. “India’s agriculture philosophy has been to keep natural resources intact and conserve it and utilise it as per the requirement. Even development programmes across the world are based on this philosophy,” he said. India has been able to protect genetic resources as the ancestors linked agri-produce with our culture, he said citing various examples. The country has been able to conserve many varieties including ‘Konamani’ rice variety in South India, ‘Agnibora’ in Assam, ‘Bhalia’ wheat in Gujarat, he added. India has also helped other nations in conserving agro- biodiversity, Modi said, noting that Haryana’s buffalo breed ‘Murah’ and Gujarat’s ‘Zafrabadi’ are known as international trans-boundary breeds. He pointed out however that the country has been able to register only 160 animal species and urged greater focus on research in this area to identify more species.