The World Environment Day was celebrated in MRPL on 5th June 2017. Shri Sanjay Varma, GGM HSE & ISO welcomed the gathering. The Environment Pledge was administered in Kannada, Hindi and English by Shri M Venkatesh, Director Refinery, Shri Rajeev Kushwah, CVO and Shri H Kumar, Managing Director respectively.
Shri Rajeev Kushwah, Chief Vigilance Officer spoke on the occasion and said that MRPL practices what it preaches in terms of planting the trees and taking care of them. The nature has reacted to its excessive exploitation in terms of cyclone, earthquake etc and shown that it is the boss, he said. Respect, conserve and preserve the nature, he advised.
Shri M Venkatesh, Director Refinery said that MRPL is utilising the sewage water from the city for its Refinery operations. If the City Corporation supplies more water, MRPL will be able to reduce the fresh water consumption to that extent, he said. He appealed everyone to focus on our targets and said that the organisation and the citizens will not be let down.
Ms.Noopur K Bhalla introduced Dr LC Soans, the Guest of Honour and Dr BR Manjunatha, Professor and Chairman, Dept of Marine Geology, Mangalore University, the Chief Guest of the programme.
Dr LC Soans spoke on the occasion and said that the efforts of today for the conservation of nature are just enough for our survival but we need to do more. He cited the examples of areas near Kudremukh where the light is being used to generate energy. Sun’s energy needs to be used for agriculture and to improve the lives of people, he said.
Dr BR Manjunatha said that the World Environment Day was first introduced in the conference in UN General assembly in 1972 and since then the need of the conservation of nature is being discussed everywhere. Tourist spots in different parts of our country and worldwide are the gifts of nature, he said. He elaborated on the evolution of earth and the human beings and explained the reasons for unequal distribution of rain. ‘Think globally and act locally’ was his advice. He appreciated the afforestation efforts of MRPL.
Shri Jayaprakash Nayak, Sr. Scientific Officer, KSPCB spoke on the occasion and said that we cannot cherish with our right hand and chop off our left hand and advised for balanced approach. Be eco-friendly, prevent degradation of land and water,he advised.
Shri H Kumar, Managing director invited some questions from the students to get the answers from the distinguished guests. The children raised some interesting questions like whether any pollutants are present in bio mass energy production and about the brown cloud etc. The guests on stage answered them graciously.
Shri H Kumar, our Managing Director while addressing the gathering, said that the cities contribute to almost 90% of the total pollution and we expect the villages to conserve the nature. Our country has the tradition of respecting nature, be it sun, tree, plant or animal and we need to continue that tradition, he said. Be prepared for the day when sun energy replaces many other forms of energy, he said. MRPL is planning to set up 2nd generation Ethanol plant and a day may come when such fuels will replace other oil products, he continued. He said that in future, some companies may come up to produce petrol and diesel from the biodegradable waste.
During the programme the guests were honoured and the prizes were distributed to the students of different schools, dependents of employees and the employees. The best three short films made on the environment day theme ‘Connecting People to Nature’ were played on screen during the programme.
Shri UV Aithal, GM- HSE proposed the Vote of Thanks and Shri Rudolph VJ Noronha, Chief Manager – OM&S compered the programme.
A day earlier, on 4th June 2017, as part of environment day celebration, MRPL took up the novel plan of ‘Seed ball making’ at Ganeshpura, Kaikamba. Seed ball is an innovative way to grow plants. It basically consists of a mixture of red soil (mud) and cow dung mixed with other bio compost. The semi-solid mix is prepared by adding a little water proportionate to the quantity of mixture after which a particular plant seed inserted in it. These balls are allowed to dry in sunlight and stored to be used later. These seed balls are thrown near hills, plains, lakes, ponds so that they sprout and become plants and trees helping afforestation. It is understood that the success rate of survival of the plants in quite high compared to a sapling planted.
Volunteers from MRPL joined to prepare more than a thousand seed balls which are now ready to sprout and green our environment.
