A Crusade of Plantation in BE College Campus

A Crusade of Plantation in BE College Campus
Chinmoy Jana, (On behalf of 1989 batch of students)

On behalf of ALUMI Batch of 1989 and also 1990 Architecture, its my pleasure to share with you about our inaugural program of the mass plantation drive at our heritage campus on the occasion of 35th. year of our graduation from erstwhile BE COLLEGE, Shibpur. On the auspicious Rathayatra day, we planted precisely 1350 nos. at different strategic locations of the campus. This is not a gift, a humble effort to pay back our Mother Nature, and for our own institution!!

Not many are aware that our Campus which was originally a part of Botanical Garden, Shibpur has traditionally been a green hub with bountiful of its flora and fauna!!! However calamities like Cyclone Amphan, Yash.., Phani and recent one RUMEL etc. and also due to natural process of ageing we had lost many trees and plants in our campus.

I remember a mango tree adjacent to our quarter in the BE College campus, which used to gift us sweetest of mango fruits during its season, unfortunately it couldn’t survive wrath of Cyclone Amphan and got uprooted, eventually died in spite of efforts of restoration!!.. The carcass of that mango tree is still standing tall leaving behind all those sweet memories of bygone days!!..

I would say its our environmental crusade to save our Mother nature, and I do really mean it. Situation had reached to that degradation and loss of forests are destabilizing the planet on a scale unseen in human history. We have lost nearly half of the 6 trillion trees that existed on Earth before the onset of agriculture 12,000 years ago. Each year we lose around 15 billion more. Launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2020 in support of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, 1 trillion organisations support the growing momentum on nature-based solutions to address climate change and nature loss.

Trees are not just Carbon absorbent or oxygen producing units, trees are history, trees are rich traditions which has huge store house of stories that they secretly unfold if you are keen to listen to them!! The feeling while standing beside some of these century old trees in our campus is beyond description. We are committed to preserve and nurture these trees as senior family members of our campus fraternity.

We also take the opportunity to extend our heartfelt thanks to our project partner, PORIBESH BONDHU FOUNDATION, a registered non-profit NGO engaged passionately towards environmental cause. Their enthusiast volunteers along with our caretaker team carried out the task with able guidance of Mr. Ashim Majumdar Da and his team. Let’s give them a Big Hand!!!..

On behalf of Batch’89 I would like to thank all concerned officials of IIEST, Shibpur for accommodating our request at such a short span of time and extending all practicable support towards making this project a grand success!!!..

Special mention of Prof. V.M.S.R. Murthy, our Director, Prof. Debasish Datta, Dean-IRAA, but for his support and constant guidance this project wouldn’t have seen the light. I would like to mention of Prof. Soumen Mitra, HOD -Architecture and his super efficient Team comprising Prof. Souvanik Roy and Madam Varsha who had done a stupendous job of chalking out detail plantation map of this heritage campus at the shortest possible time. Prof. Subhasish Bhowmik, Dean-Planning and Development had also extended his support as and when required. I would also name Prof. Sumit, in-charge the horticulture department for his constant guidance, and Prof. Ashok Adak, Prof. Soumya Bhattacharya. Last but not the least would thank our Caretaker Team under Sri. Bibhor Das headed by DIPU for supporting the preliminary cleaning activity since last few days around our huge and sprawling campus for facilitating this plantation activity.

However, when we talk on plantation, it’s just not planting few samplings. Due care and proper maintenance would be required for the next three months time period to ensure regular growth of these plants, which is also a critical component of our MOU with the institution.

We also carried out a special drive along with our NGO partners to make this campus a Plastic-Free zone as much as practicable!! As they say, cleanliness is next to Godliness, let’s build up a culture of cleanliness at all levels in making our campus a better place to live in!! We also make our humble appeal to all campus co-residents to come voluntarily in this venture and extend their support.

We are committed and promise our wholehearted support and solidarity towards any such project in future.

Thank you all… Jai Hind!!