400 banyan trees 250 hectares IIT campus
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Chennai: Did you know there are 400 banyan trees on the IIT-Madras campus which is spread over 250 hectares? This is the single largest concentration of the species in the city.
Interesting, is it not? This has been mentioned in the massive tree census of Chennai (Phase 1), launched in late 2011 by the state government’s urban forestry department. “The survey’s findings in the form of a report will be officially released soon,” a forest department official told DC on condition of anonymity.
Over 1,70,000 trees have been enumerated in Chennai, with the help of nearly 500 Botany students drawn from city colleges. The first of its kind exercise sought to promote awareness and self-interest in the younger generation in preserving the tree cover, which is fast falling victim to urbanisation.
Among the areas with large tree cover are the Theosophical Society campus in Adyar and the Guindy institutional area that includes the National Park, Raj Bhavan and IIT Madras. The Theosophical Society campus in particular has more than 20 exotic species.
While the first phase which concluded last year covered mostly educational institutions, there were initial plans to launch the second that was to have to enumerated trees on residential and street-wise basis. “But it was shelved after students, who volunteered as the prime surveyors of trees, could not find time due to various commitments. Another problem was lack of co-operation from residents,” said D. Narasimhan, project coordinator and associate professor of Botany in Madras Christian College.
( Source : dc correspondent )
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