[acx_slideshow name=”Gaj Yatra 18022018 Shriram School Sports”]

Noida, NCR, February 18, 2018: The Shriram Millennium School’s commitment to the environment shone through as children from Koshika (Pre Nursery), Ankur (Nursery) and Kalika (KG) up to Class III celebrated their annual sports events at the school sports ground on February 1 and 2. The sports events were dedicated to the cause of protecting the elephant, India’s National Heritage Animal, and conserving the 101 elephant corridors in India by supporting the Gaj Yatra awareness campaign launched by Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and the Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MoEF&CC). WTI’s Ananya Rane attended the events and flagged off the painting of elephant murals as part of the opening ceremony.

The Gaj Yatra, a mega-campaign by WTI, IFAW and the MoEF&CC, aims to raise awareness about the shrinking space for India’s wild elephants and the importance of securing elephant corridors.

Uttara Singh, the Shriram Millennium School’s Principal, urged parents to join hands with the school in support of the Gaj Yatra in her opening address: “Just as ensuring the physical and mental well-being of our children through a well defined and age appropriate sports programme is imperative,” she said, “we need to focus equally on the well-being of the natural environment and mitigating the increasingly damaging impacts on our ecosystem through sustainable solutions. For this reason, we have dedicated our sports events to the welfare and protection of elephants, which are the architects of the forests and play a key role in conserving the natural environment. We aim to do this by raising funds, creating awareness, sensitising and building a social and political will towards constructive action.”

Children of the school’s Paryavaran Club also organised a bake sale to raise funds for safeguarding elephant landscapes and ensuring that elephants get right of passage through critical migratory corridors.

The Gaj Yatra, a mega-campaign by WTI, IFAW and the MoEF&CC, aims to raise awareness about the shrinking space for India’s wild elephants and the importance of securing elephant corridors. WTI has been working with the Government of India’s Project Elephant, state forest departments, and national and global NGOs to secure and protect elephant corridors for over a decade through its Right of Passage project, and it is hoped that the Gaj Yatra will lend a renewed urgency to these efforts.