One of the goals under the Chief Minister’s Forestry and Environment Mission is to achieve “100 % environment conscious citizens in Sikkim by 2015”. This is a humungous task and children aged 6-16 have been identified as the predominant ‘agents of change’. Moreover, various target groups including taxi drivers, government employees, school teachers have been identified as the predominant ‘agents of change’. To attain this mission various schemes and awareness campaigns under the National Environment Awareness Campaign are being implemented across the State to create awareness amongst various target groups including taxi drivers, government employees, school teachers. In addition to this the Government of Sikkim has come up with innovative schemes like 10 Minutes to Earth, Smriti Van, State Green Mission, and Chief Minister’s Green School Rolling Trophy to encourage pro environmental conservation behaviour of citizens.
In order to achieve the above stated objective, it is imperative to understand the concept of environment conscious citizen. The first step towards this should be defining what we mean by environment conscious citizen. Consequently there is a need to identify the factors that compose environmentally conscious behaviour & attitude. In this context, it is proposed to perform a study that would serve as a reference point for the mission by capturing the baseline information on environmental awareness amongst citizens.