Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore are among top ten cities generating the biggest amount of e-waste. According to the data released by Ministry of Environment and Forest on the basis of survey conducted by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) the amount of e-waste will increase upto 8,00,000 tonnes by 2012. This amount is over 570% higher than the amount of e-waste generated during 2005.

The e-waste includes useless computers, mobile, monitors and other electronic gadgets. Mumbai, Delhi, Banglore, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Surat and Nagpur are top ten cities generating electronic waste in the country.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today said that around one Million saplings would be planted by 2010 in Delhi. Inaugurating four-day annual Eco-Meet at National Bal Bhavan in the capital she requested children to preserve sapling to improve the survival rate of a plant.

Dikshit also lauded role of people in making Delhi a pollution-free city upto some extent. She called upon people to concentrate more on conservation of natural resources, as our efforts have not yet reached the peak.

About 2000 eco-clubs in the city are participating in this Annual Eco-meet. NGOs/corporate bodies also set up their stalls along with schools and colleges depicting different aspects of the environment. Many students along with their eco-club teachers have been putting regular hard work in creating their colourful stalls and showcasing their contribution to the environment.

The themes of paper recycling, making Delhi a clean and green city, rain water harvesting, solar energy, air, water and noise pollution, and climate change were the issues on which the students and teachers showed their genuine concerns. Exhibition is being prepared on this occasion with the themes of Solid Waste Management, Promotion of recycled paper, Bio-diversity, Air pollution, Water Pollution, Energy & Water Conservation and Climate Change.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today exhorted children to function as an Environment-ambassador. In an interaction session with school children at Delhi Secretariat she requested children to at least plant seven saplings and preserve them as their family member to make the city green.

Stressing upon the need of utilization of recycled paper she said that practice may help in saving around 40,000 trees in a year. She also underlined the need of making mandatory use of recycled papers in business houses

Secretary (Environment) Dharmendra Kumar informed the students about the scheme of Eco-club in schools and colleges. He said that to make more effective and action oriented, the department has initiated a programme called vacation programme for the eco-club students since last six years. Under the scheme, 80 students (40 from govt. schools and 40 from pvt. schools) selected through a competitive process. These children were trained for 10 days in Delhi during winter vacation and 5 days out side Delhi during summer vacation.

About 100 students of different schools of Delhi to meet Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and discuss the issues related to the environment and Green Delhi. These students will belong to eco-club of different schools.

It is notable that these Eco-Clubs have played an important role to increase green area in Delhi and to make successful campaigns like anti fire-crackers, say no to plastic bags, rain water harvesting and several other campaigns related to better and green environment in the city. These Eco-clubs were started in 1998 with a participation of 100 schools. Now the number of such schools having their eco-clubs has been increased by 25 times. There about 2500 Eco-Clubs in the schools and colleges. About 100 colleges and educational institutions too have been included in this category over a period of time.

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit has been interacting with the representatives and member students of Eco-Clubs regularly and discusses several issue about the environment. This time the role of these Eco-Clubs have become more important as Delhi is organizing Commonwealth Games this year.