Vidyanagar Nature Club

VNC has been working since 1988 for environment education, awareness & protection. VNC is now a leading NGO in Anand district & also a registered Public Trust. Our aim is to create a sensitive awareness in society towards the environment by developing individuals who will take up this cause more effectively.

VNC has carried out various environmental awareness programmes. To name a few, snake shows covering more than 64,000 students of Anand district; Arranging various campaigns, competitions and bird watching trips; Conservation projects like, protecting large numbers of trees against massive tree felling and promoting tree plantation; Plan and control of a few polluting units,. In all our activities VNC has always garnered enormous support from the citizens of Anand district.

Our major activity and one of the most popular one is of Nature Camps. More than 12000 youngsters along with adults from Anand & Vidyanagar have participated in these camps which VNC organises in association with ANALA. The camp sites are located at Natural & Pristine surroundings where one can observe and enjoy the beauty of the environment. Expert guides are there to assist participants to enjoy activities like rock climbing, rappelling, snow trekking, river crossing, bird watching, star gazing etc. These activities help us in understanding nature and its beauty. The camping activity also teaches about harmonious community living and develops a respect & love for the environment.

VNC is run by volunteers, who take out time from their personal affairs to work for the Club. The only return that they expect is in the form of personal satisfaction derived from working towards a common goal of developing sensitivity towards our environment.

In extension to present activities this year VNC will be taking up several other activities like water conservation, rain water recharging, setting up of environment education vehicle which can reach to rural areas, research on biodiversity of flora & fauna and monitoring of water quality of Mahisagar and Sabarmati rivers, restoration of wetlands etc.

Vidyanagar Nature Club is now a Member of SAYEN (South Asia Youth & Environment Network) which is supported by UNEP (United Nation Environment Program) also an accredited NGO by GEF (Global Environment Facility), VNC is member to Global Environmental Action's (GEA) Virtual Globe as a special NGO, and was invited to Japan for meetings of environmental NGOs of Asian countries. Managing trustee, Dhaval Patel attended conferences, in October 2005, in June 2006 again in March 2007, held at Tokyo, Japan and presented a paper on the activities of VNC. Furthermore he attended (as observer) 14th ECO-ASIA (meeting of Environment Ministers of all countries from Asia and pacific region) on 24th June 2006, held at Saitama city Japan again in 2007, 2008, 2009.

VNC's activities were appraised and much-admired by the GEA delegation consisting of existing DIET members and former minister of Japan, during their visit to Vallabh Vidyanagar on 23rd July 2006.

Judging from the support we receive for our activities and the feedback from the media, parents, teachers, students and campers, we can safely surmise that we are making progress.