Growing up amidst nature’s bounty, surrounded by green vegetation, pretty wild flowers lurking among the dense leaves; our playtime used to be spent in the lap of nature. I remember I used to be fascinated by a weed which we called ‘touch me not’ plant.
We all friends used to enjoy watching the recoiling of its leaves when touched and would wait for hours until it reopened again. The ecstasy of tasting sour tamarind after spending hours to pluck it is indescribable.
What I aim to convey from this is, we during our childhood were so close to nature unlike today’s generation brought up in lavish cities or the ‘concrete jungle’. Our children have very little knowledge and concern for the environment, the biodiversity existing around us, its importance and conservation.
Prof Mahendra Kumar Satapathy and Sidhanta Sekhar Bisoi have performed a great task to sensitise people on this through the book “Green Education: Plants for Fun and Games”. This rare endeavour of the writers is based on a wide survey in different parts of Odisha and highlights the plant species which have been used and can be used as play material by children.
Coconut shell telephone, bhindi art, papaya ball, neem bow and arrow--all these cheap play materials highlighted in this book have tried to bring children close to nature and boost their creativity.
This book has tried to create fascination among children about common plants that we see in our surrounding, but have very little or no knowledge about their characteristics, growth, habitat, distribution and commercial uses, etc.
It is the need of the hour to educate our children about the consequences of deforestation, pollution and how it creates ecological imbalance. They must know the importance of trees, green cover, biological diversity and its irreplaceable contribution in shaping our modern society and fulfilling our vast needs. The book has kept this in mind, and attempted to do this through fun games -- truly an interesting way for children to know about their environment.
It is very helpful for biology and botany students who aim to pursue a career in this field and serves as a handbook to them highlighting all important characteristics of plants along with their scientific names.
The book is truly an out-of-the-box thinking and at the same time, extremely interesting and proves itself as a worth read.
(Reviewer Roy is a former faculty member, DMS, RIE, Bhubaneswar)