Kolkata: As part of 'save green' initiative, Jadavpur University has undertaken a tree audit to get an update about trees in its sprawling campus and identify dead trees, possibly the first such initiative by any higher educational institution in eastern India, an official said on Thursday. Jadavpur University Registrar Snehamanju Basu told PTI that the audit had been launched about three years back on August 7, 2019 and it was a continuous process.
"The Botany department is mainly behind the drive, as part of which trees are being mapped through GPS, videographed and awarded number tags, There are 2000 trees in the campus of which less than one percent are dead, beyond any recovery. At times parts of the dead tree are replanted and survive. So the percentage of dead tree is little," she said.
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Basu said the department has devised a unique way to enumerate living trees, by issuing 'death certificate' (a tag pasted on the body) to the dead plant. "We need to save the green cover inside the JU campus. We will do whatever is needed to see the vast plantations, which makes the JU so unique to others, does not face any threat.
The students, faculty, the employees and everyone has stakes in the drive," the Registrar said. Trees in the 58-acre main campus include Mahogany, Mango, Arjun, Siris among others. The mapping process, besides for the purpose of a tree census, is aimed at preventing cutting of trees. The drive began after members of Jadavpur University Teachers' Association (JUTA) alleged two trees inside the campus had been chopped by a group of people three years back. (PTI)
