IIM Sirmaur celebrates World Environment Week

Excelsior Correspondent

SIRMAUR, June 15: Centre for Sustainability & Environmental Management (CSEM) at IIM Sirmaur organized week-long activities to celebrate World Environment Week.
CSEM was established in November 2019 as an initiative of Professor (Dr) Neelu Rohmetra, Director IIM Sirmaur to promote active research in the field of environment sustainability and steer institute’s efforts in the similar direction in effective and systematic manner.
CSEM conducted an essay competition on “The Effects of Plastic Waste on Biodiversity” and national seminar ‘Only one Earth’. Almost 90 essays were received from all over the country.
The convener of the seminar was Prof Arpita Ghosh while Prof Parul Malik was the co-convener. The seminar was conducted in three sessions such as waste water treatment, solid waste management and plastic waste management with eight renowned experts from Academics, Research and Industry.
Prof Amrinder Singh addressed the gathering in the inaugural session. He highlighted the sustainability aspects being taken into consideration while constructing the new IIM Sirmaur permanent campus focusing on GRIHA ratings, rain water harvesting and solid waste management.
The first speaker was Prof Anushree Malik, Head CRTD, IIT Delhi who shed light on complex problems and diverse consortium approach for decentralized treatment technology for industrial effluents of textile industries. The next speaker was Dr Debraj Bhattacharya, IIT Hyderabad who drew attention towards domestic waste water treatment and highlighted the importance of waste water treatment for environmental protection. Prof Bhavin Shah moderated the next panel discussion on Solid Waste Management. Dr Divya Tiwari, Principal Scientist & Advisor, Saahas spoke about the key questions related to Waste Management in India and shed light upon waste to energy plants. Dr Sunil Kumar, CSIR-NEERI Nagpur continued the session and talked about Solid Waste Management (SWM) issues and challenges from a global and Indian perspective.
The next speaker for the session was Divya Sinha, Additional Director & Incharge UPC II Div, CPCB. She addressed the legal framework related to SWM, CPCB’s mandate governing the SWM rules. Prof Parul Malik of IIM Sirmaur set forth the background for the final panel discussion of the seminar on Plastic waste Management. Prof Kaustubha Mohanty, Dept of Chemical Engg IIT Guwahati spoke about microplastics and the process of removal of microplastics from sea water and salts. Ashish Jain, Founder & Director, IPCA talked about the advantages and applications of plastic as a resource. The last speaker of the seminar was Srikrishna Balchandran, UNDP India. He informed that PWM and circular economy space has quite a scope to contribute to the country and the economy. The seminar concluded with a vote of thanks by Prof Parul Malik.