Over one billion vehicles are currently in use in the world today. Emissions from these vehicles is upsetting the delicate balance in nature, increasing global warming and resulting in climate change.
For years now, our Chancellor Amma, has encouraged people to find simple solutions such as car-pooling in order to combat this growing problem. Everywhere Amma travels around the world, she reminds one and all of the need to help restore harmony in nature.
Working together for that cause, recently the students and faculty of the Amritapuri campus observed World Car Free Day.
Every September 22, people from around the world get together to remind the world that we don’t have to accept our car-dominated societies.
But we do not want just one day of celebration and then a return to “normal” life. When people get out of their cars, they should stay out of their cars. It is up to us, it is up to our cities, and our governments to help create permanent change.
Let World Car Free Day be a showcase for just how our cities might look like, feel like, and sound like without cars … 365 days a year.
As the climate heats up, World Car Free Day is the perfect time to take the heat off the planet, and put it on city planners and politicians to give priority to cycling, walking and public transport, instead of to the automobile.*
Showing clearly where their priorities lay, the Amrita students and faculty participated in a Cycle Rally from the nearby town of Karunagappally to their campus on this day. “Cycling is good for the planet and us!” the stickers on their cycles loudly proclaimed.
Prominent public officials including Municipal Chairperson Shri. Ansar and Karunagappally Deputy Superintendent of Police Shri. Rajendran extended all support.
Beginning at 10:00 am, the Amrita cyclists arrived on campus by 11:00 am. No one used a personal vehicle to commute that day – neither a car nor a two-wheeler bike could be seen parked anywhere on campus.
“This was the wish of our Chancellor Amma,” remarked Jishnu Jayaram, B.Tech. student from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, who helped organize the event.
Jishnu was joined by several fellow students, all members of Amrita Sanjeevani, the student seva association on campus, in planning and executing all event related tasks. “Amma guided us and helped us develop our ideas so that we could successfully do this,” he shared.
Riding the bicycles alongside the students were not only their faculty members but also campus administrators including Campus Director Br. Sudeep; Associate Dean Dr. Balakrishnan; ASBT Dean Dr. Bipin Nair and ASE Principal Dr. Sankaran.
“I rode a bicycle today after nearly 35 years,” stated ASBT Dean Dr. Bipin, who lived in the West for several decades, before returning to India to join Amrita. Now Dr. Bipin lives in the Amritapuri ashram and walks daily to the college. His commute causes no harm to the planet.
September 23, 2011
Amritapuri Campus
Visit : From World Car Free Network
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