Agartala, December 06, 2022: Inaugurating the three-day long state-level master resource persons’ training programme for school teachers on ‘Nature Activity To Understand The Dynamics Of Nature’, Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma on Monday said that the treasure trove of the natural heritage lies with the tribal culture.
Tripura State Council for Science & Technology and Vigyan Prasar, government of India jointly organized this training programme at Saheed Bhagat Singh Youth Hostel premises here in collaboration with the School Education department.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Dev Varma said “Nature studies will be reintroduced in schools because in our Indian culture, whatever we get, are from the environment. Hence, we believe that our Indian civilization, philosophy of life has received from the environment. So we believe whatever we got is part and parcel of us and nation. Indian civilization is nature-centric civilization. It doesn’t come from our industrial revolution, it came through a careful study of nature.”
Citing an instance, the Deputy CM said “Matsyendranath was the founder of Nath community. He used to meditate under a tree in the jungle. He was asked who was your guru (teacher)? He said my guru is ‘Pakriti’ (Nature). Trees, rivers, mountains, etc., are my gurus. The words of Matsyendranath are true. People cannot leave without nature and how people use nature depends on them.”
Speaking to the participants who are the teachers from schools in tribal areas, he said “As you people will impart lessons will equally boost up your knowledge too. Time is worth living with harmony of nature through millennia, there is so much to learn also from them. There is so much to update them also. The treasure trove of natural heritage lies with the tribal culture.”
Claiming a learning must be experiential, Dev Varma said “This was the main motive of India earlier as textbooks were not there. You will teach and also learn at the same time, which is a two-way process. Education is all about two-way traffic and that is why we called in India is “Guru Shishya Param Para”. This may look like a seminar, but no, we are trying to re-establish the tradition of India where the trainer and trainees both learn from each other which follows the development of new concepts, new awareness, etc.”
“The whole idea of environment conservation is building a movement. Unless there were movements like Swacch Bharat as most of the cities are clean. Similarly, there has to be movement for nature. Nature is forced to use not to exploit as we did not create a single leaf of nature. Hence, human beings don’t have the right to spoil nature. Everyone starting from animals to human beings will use it. Earlier, such thoughts were there in India, but gradually we moved to exploit nature for growth. Development and growth are not the same thing. Growth can be careless and development must be cost effective, future-effective and sustainable”, he added.
Dev Varma also said “As there is a slogan ‘Athiti Deva Bhaba’ in entire India, another slogan is also there i.e. ‘Pakriti Deva Bhaba’. Nature study should start from the primary classes.”
He hoped that this workshop will be a success and come out with new ideas.
