10 schools get green awards

Ten schools from across the country were given awards by a Delhi-based body for following environment-friendly practices like proper waste and water management.
More than 500 schools covering most of the states and union territories participated in the event organised by Centre for Science and Environment while the top ten winners were schools from Noida, Delhi, Sikkim, Rajasthan, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh.
Schools from NCR - three in Delhi and one in Greater Noida - were among the top 10 green schools in the country.
The top prize went to Father Agnel School in Greater Noida while the second prize to Queen's Valley School, Dwarka, and the third to the Government Senior Secondary School, in Devnagar in Shimla.

CSE said that the awards have been given on the basis of a detailed assessment of environment-friendly practices such as rainwater harvesting, proportion of green area in school, waste management, water management and sanitation practices, availability of health-promoting food in the canteen, among other practices.
CSE DG Sunita Narain lamented that schoolchildren are not able to follow some environmental practices such as walking or cycling to school.
"This is a reality of our cities that if you cycle or walk to school, you may meet with an accident," she said and hoped that it would be possible to rate states on the basis of their policies - whether they were environment-friendly or not.

Film personality Tom Alter who also gave away the award said "telling someone not to litter or not to waste resources will get you into trouble - like it has got me into trouble several times - but if you take up this challenge, you will do a great service to everyone," he told the students.