Environment protection: Students urged to ride a bicycle, walk to university

‘A proposal to ban automobiles on campus is under consideration’.

FAISALABAD:

University of Agriculture Vice Chancellor Prof Iqrar Ahmad Khan on Monday urged the students to ride a bicycle or walk to the university.

He was speaking at a seminar on Forests and Environment arranged at the UAF by by Pakistan Society of Foresters.

He said adoption of such habits would help the university in its attempt to make the campus environment-friendly. He said more than 30,000 new trees had been planted at the campus in four years.

He said a new bachelors’ degree programme in environmental sciences had also been started at the university. He said the department of environment sciences had already started arranging awareness raising walks and distributing recyclable bags among the students and faculty residing on the campus.

He said the administration was also considering a proposal to ban automobile on the campus. He said the number of automobiles had increased in the city, increasing the proportion of green house gases in the atmosphere.

Prof Khan urged the district government to provide bicycle-only lanes on city roads to promote the use of bicycle.

Other speakers at the seminar expressed their concern over the increasing  deforestation in the country. They called for the government to initiate awareness raising programmes to promote environment-friendly practices among the people.

Punjab Medical College’s Prof  Zahid Yasin Hashmi said liaison between the PMC and the UAF could be improved  by reviving the Environment Watch Society.

He said the country should start by following some of the environment-protection policies pursued successfully in other countries. He gave the example of the requirement for any citizen of Miami, United States, to plant a dozen saplings before cutting a tree.

He praised the environment-friendly measures undertaken by the UAF and said that he would try to initiate similar measures at the PMC.

Published In The Express Tribune, June 19^th, 2012.