Dehradun: 16 September 2021: Forest Research Institute (Deemed to be University), Publicity and Liaison Office and ENVIS Resource Center of FRI Dehradun virtually celebrated World Ozone Day 2021. Arun Singh Rawat, Director General, ICFRE and Chief Guest during his opening remarks emphasized about the importance of the ozone layer and its role in protecting the Earth from the harmful portion of the rays of the sun, thus helping preserve life on the planet. He also described that the United Nations General Assembly, in 1994, declared 16 th September as the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer/ World Ozone Day. This day marks the signing of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the Ozone Layer in 1987. This year, the theme of World Ozone Day is 'Montreal Protocol – keeping us, our food and vaccines cool.To commemorate this significant day, a special lecture was delivered by Prof. Pradhan ParthSarthi, Department of Environmental Science, Central University of South Bihar, Gaya, Bihar on ‘Current situation of the ozone layer and the need to preserve it’.
He further summarized the structure of the ozone layer and the variation in the ozone across different months of the year. He elaborated the importance of the ozone layer with his presentation and rendered a basic understanding of the significance of preserving it for future generations. Prof Parth Sarthi also presented a case study of ozone concentration in Bihar, which his research group conducted. On this occasion, online painting and essay writing competitions were also organized for Kendriya Vidhyalaya and Navodaya Vidhyalaya school students of Dehradun district under two categories i.e., (Class XI-X) and (Class XI-XII) and 75 students participated in these competitions. In the essay writing contest Bhuwan Verma, Class IX from KV No. 2 Survey of India, Dehradun begged the first prize, Mansi, Class X student of KV IIP Dehradun and Bhoomika Gupta Class X student of KV IMA Dehradun, won second and third prizes in category 1 (Class IX-X). In this event's category 2 (Class XI-XII), Avantika Rana Class XI from KV No. 2 SOI, Vijaylaxmi Pancholi, Class XII student of KV FRI Dehradun and Gaurav Singh, Class XI student of KV ONGC Dehradun, won first, second and third prizes respectively.
In the painting competition, Sristhi Singh, a class IX student from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Dehradun, won the first prize. Saloni Panuli, Class IX student from KV No. 2 SOI, Dehradun secured the second position, and Vedansh Yadav, Class X student of KV IIP Dehradun, won the third prize in category-1. In category 2 (Class XI-XII), Aman Kumar Prajapati, a Class – XI student from Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya Dehradun, got the first painting award. Twinkle Dimri, Class XI student from KV No. 1 SOI, Dehradun secured second position and Aryan Gupta, Class XI student of KV ONGC Dehradun, won the third prize in this category. The program was conducted by Dr. H.S. Ginwal, Dean (Academic), FRI (Deemed to be University) and Dr. Vijender Panwar Coordinator ENVIS and attended by the DDGs, ADGs, AK Tripathi, Registrar FRI University, Heads of the Divisions, Scientists of ICFRE/FRI,FRIDU students of M.Sc./Ph.D., and KVS/NVS.
