File - Indus International School, Hyderabad

PUNE TRIP: ‘YES’ PROGRAM
With the onset of the monsoon and the summer vacation our trip to Pune for the ‘YES’ program realized.
We began our journey on the morning of 19th June, 2011 and received a warm reception by MUWCI
representatives at the Pune airport. We embarked on the
journey from the airport to the MUWCI campus, 40 km on the
outskirts of Pune city.
On 28 November 1997, Queen Noor of Jordan alongside Nelson
Mandela inaugurated the Mahindra United World College of
India as one of the now, thirteen, United World Colleges (UWC)
and the third UWC in Asia.
The MUWCI campus is 175 acres in size situated in a rural area, on a hill overlooking the valley of the Mula
River, near Mulshi Dam. The College is currently running a project
to create a biodiversity reserve from much of the open land on
campus. Its policy is to encourage environmental protection and
to foster awareness for one's surroundings. Part of the
biologically rich Western Ghats, it is an area blessed with one of
the highest numbers of unique species and is one of 25
biodiversity hotspots of the world identified by Conservation
International. The campus location makes it a living laboratory of
diverse flora and fauna. The 120 acres of campus kept aside for
this project are divided into two zones:
1. The Bio-diversity Park, consisting of about 30 acres,
includes walking trails and gardens; a bird trail, tree trail,
butterfly park, a labyrinth featuring sacred trees of the
world, a fern garden, spice garden, medicinal garden and
nurseries. Helpful signs provide information for students,
visitors and researchers.
2. The Conservation Reserve occupies approximately 90
acres of land from which human activity is purposefully
kept away. The focus here is on Soil and Water
conservation. It is expected that this part of campus will
be fully restored to forest over time.
This is the reason they run their summer programs during school
holidays to implement their philosophy of biodiversity. The
philosophy is based on the fact that man and animal are a part of
the same ecosystem and should survive together. MUWCI has
been hosting summer programs (YES, MEZA and Encounter India) over the last few years and welcomes
students from around the world to participate in them.
The first day brought in a sense of awe and fear as we were
shown slides of poisonous snakes and insects that are a part of
the MUWCI biodiversity reserve. The fact that we co-exist with
nature and it’s denizens was sharply brought into focus for all of
us.
Our 1st day began with water and soil experiments with samples
from the local damns and rivers. The experiments were to find
the level of contamination of water. The 2nd day began with a
bio-diversity jungle walk and progressed to a survey of the local
villages, schools and Ashrams. The survey sought information
about the availability and sources of water, energy and their
usage along with its wastage and the reasons for the same. 3rd
day we went to Pune city and worked with a social organization
which works on collection of garbage, their segregation and
recycles of the dry wastages. We did a door-to-door garbage
collection drive to make people aware about the importance of segregation and disposal of dry, wet and
bio-degradable garbage. The fourth day began with the visit to an
organic farm on foot three kilometers up hill. There we were told
by the head of the organization about the importance of organic
produce and their benefits. The day was followed by an
interesting organic lunch. The final day was the recapitulation of
the whole 'YES' program and writing the blogs followed by the
distribution of the certificates.
This was indeed once in a life time experience mixed with fun,
work and enjoyment. The summer camp was a part of the CAS
program undertaken by our grade 11 students and I sincerely hope that they will implement the same
philosophy in their life.
Shatavisa Khanna
Department of Mathematics & CAS in charge for the ‘YES’
program