To make the students and visitors aware of the rich diversity of trees in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park located at IIT Bombay campus, the students of the institute decided to identify the names of the species of the trees.
Yash Sanghvi, coordinator of the programme said that they covered trees along the main road, entry gate and hostels areas. Aimed at being an awareness drive where 100 students, volunteers and departments heads took part, all those involved used the report presented by the World Wide Fund for Nature dating back in 2008, as the reference resources. It was the only available document of trees on campus.
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Students have made a database of these trees, where all the details and locations are incorporated. The staff from the nursery department of the institute helped the students to identify these trees. Low-cost placards have been tied to the trees with details like -
- Common name
- Botanical name
- Speciality and use of the trees
Residents of the campus welcomed the move on the part of the students. It was altogether a new experience for them. They were surprised to find a number of different species of trees in the campus.
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A thrid year mechanical engineering student said that he has been on the campus for more than three years but he never bothered to pay attention to such diversity that existed. Previously he felt all the trees are of the same species. But after reading the placards he came to realise the fascinating facts of these species of trees. It is a wonderful experience to have such rich variety of species on the campus, he added.