NDTV & Toyota pledges to keep the Hills alive!

NDTV organized an interschool painting competition in the capital on Monday at Modern School, Barakhamba Road. The contest was an effort to involve young minds in the NDTV-Toyota ‘Keep the Hills Alive’ campaign, aimed at bringing together school children and providing a platform to depict their interpretation of the ‘environmental degradation in the hills of India’.

NDTV-Toyota's Keep the Hills Alive campaign was a month-long initiative to raise awareness on the plight of our hills, the threats that face them and provide sustainable solutions to tackle these effectively. During the month of September this year, NDTV’s reporters travelled from Ladakh to Kargil, Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Guwahati, Maharashtra (Matheran & Kaas), Coorg, and Ooty to highlight the varied problems and their solutions specific to these regions.

The painting competition was for 2 categories – Class 6th – 8th and class 9th - 12th and saw participation from 43 schools across the city. Nearly 700 students were part of the competition and renowned artist Jatin Das and photographer, artist and activist Ram Rehman were part of the judging panel.

Popular VJ and Comedian Cyrus Broacha along with NDTV’s Gargi Rawat interacted with the children, creating further awareness of the cause. A special performance by Punjabi Singer and Actor Jassi kept the audience enthralled. Some of the popular numbers included Dil Le Gayi Kudi and Laung da Lashkara.

The winners of the painting competition were:

SENIOR Category:

1st - Mishmi Nandi, Basava International School
2nd - Reshma Sarkar, Somerville School, Greater Noida
3rd - Sangya Tyagi, K R Mangalam School

JUNIOR Category:

1st - Yashraj Bhardwaj, Leelawati Public School
2nd - Sukrit Rai, St. Thomas School
3rd - Vanya Jain, Suncity World School