Green is "in thing" among Mumbai kids

Mumbai, Jul 13 (UNI) In spite of spending most of their lives living in concrete jungles, the city's kids are showing surprising interest and love for wildlife and conservation of forests and the environment.

Through initiatives taken by NGOs, green groups, access to information from internet and television, kids are well-aware of the dangers of consumerism and threat to the wildlife and plants.

''Kids must be taught about the wonders of nature and have fun at the same time,'' says Sanctuary editor, Bittu Sehgal, whose magazine has launched a nationwide ''Kids for Tigers'' project, which currently covers 750 schools and one million school children, with 50,000 students from Mumbai.

''Tiger is a metaphor for the nature, and we want to save it, not because it is a beautiful animal, but because it makes ecological sense,'' explains Mr Sehgal.

With a 400 per cent increase in natural disasters from the mid 80s' to 2007, many attributed to climate change and damage to the environment, a time may soon come when the country and the world may turn to the new generation of these ecological super heroes who will be armed with knowledge and the spirit to save the world, Mr Sehgal observed.

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