Students, faculty members to help spread green cover in IISER

Berhampur: The students and faculty members of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER)- Berhampur will be asked to plant saplings on the campus to inculcate in them a sense of urgency to protect environment. This was stated by IISER-Berhampur Director Ashok Kumar Ganguli while addressing a meeting on ‘Van Mahotsav.’ The meeting was jointly organised by IISER and Odisha Environmental Society, Bhubaneswar at Laudigaon on Thursday.

About 1,000 students, 50 faculty members and 130 non-teaching staff will plant at least one sapling this year on the campus. The campus of the IISER has been set up on 200.435-acre land at Loudigaon of which 70 acres are natural forest. “We are planning plantation of trees on 130 acres of land phase-wise. Last year, we planted about 5,000 saplings and this year we are planning to plant 10,000 saplings. We have launched this year’s plantation programme today. During the next 5 years, we will plant more than 50,000 trees inside the campus,” said Ganguli.

Interestingly, all the species of trees are native. “We have natural flora and fauna inside the campus and our focus would be on native species,” he said.

“The global temperature has gone up 1.5 degrees Celsius and we experienced temperatures of more than 50 degrees Celsius at many places, which is very alarming. We have to plant more trees and there is no way out,” said Ganguli. However, Ganguli urged the planners to involve school and college students to propagate conservation and increase green cover in the educational institutions.

Odisha Environmental Society, Bhubaneswar, president S N Patra highlighted the history of plantation drive in ancient India since 1485. He announced that the Odisha Environmental Society would plant more than 10,000 saplings on IISER campus this year.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had dedicated the permanent campus of IISER-Berhampur at Laudigaon in Ganjam district through video conferencing in February.