Every year, the University of Hyderabad welcomes thousands of students from around the country. And the first thing one notices when they enter the campus is its varied biodiversity. The rocks found in the campus have also been given heritage status, and are often a hangout for many students.
In fact, a group of students has started a club just to explore the rocky area of the campus. The Sunday Climbers was started four years ago and the 250-member group has regular activities that involve exploring the rocky area on the campus. “We started with about 10 people. Slowly, as our activities became more planned, we regularly tied up with GHAC and Society to Save Rocks and we had more people coming in,” says Abhijit Debnath, one of the founding members, who is currently finishing his PhD in Cognitive Sciences.
“We have stable rock formations here and several rocks on the campus have been identified as heritage rocks. Many of them have very interesting formations and there’s the rock formation near Buffalo Lake, which is vertical and the view from there is beautiful. There’s also the mushroom rock and the temple rock, which are famous structures in the college,” says Abhijit.
Every Sunday, students get together at a specific zone of the campus for various activities. But for the group, it’s also about the conservation of these spots. “Apart from the climbing and trekking activities, which are stress-busters for many students, our aim is to create awareness. Many students don’t know the importance of these locations and we want to create the feeling of responsibility for the preservation of these rocks. People litter the area and we want to stop it,” says Abhijit.
But being a part of this group has a lot of personal benefits. “It gives us confidence, we push ourselves to reach to the top and also it builds trust,” he adds.
