New Delhi, Aug 7: Planting a tree will be a part of the Delhi University curriculum from the coming academic session, and the students will be the varsity’s “climate warriors”, Acting Vice-Chancellor P C Joshi announced on Saturday. This will be applicable at the Under Graduate, Post Graduate and M.Phil./Ph.D levels, DU officials said.
The programme will be scientifically monitored and evaluated by the respective colleges, centres and departments, they said. “Planting millions of suitable trees and creating a natural ecosystem is one of the best ways and this can be achieved faster through massive students participation.
Every year, the Delhi University admits lakhs of students from different parts of the country and they will be our climate warriors,” Joshi said. Planting and subsequent maintenance of trees will not only create a big supply chain in creating jobs at a different level but also yield several valuable products which will provide suitable income at a different level, he added.
It is well known that plants absorb carbon dioxide, provide oxygen, absorb many harmful pollutants including cancer-causing chemicals, prevent soil erosion, landslides etc, said Botanist and Professor Dinabandhu Sahoo, Director of the Centre for Himalayan Studies and the brain behind the proposal.
“Today, we are facing a major Biosphere Crisis and there are only 28 trees per person available in India while the global average is 422 trees per person, Canada has 8,953 and China has 130 trees per person,” he said. In a statement, DU Registrar Vikas Gupta said the world is facing one of the greatest humanitarian crisis today not only due to the COVID-19 pandemic but also several environmental, social and economic challenges.
“For the first time, we all realized the value of oxygen and the pandemic has taught us many things. Therefore, we need to fight the challenges together and get ready ourselves to combat future problems,” he said.
The varsity also issued guidelines on the new initiative. DU had constituted a committee for examining the proposal of the Centre for Himalyan Studies for implementing a mandatory action-oriented programme for Environmental Action as Academic Social Responsibility, the notification said.
According to the notification, each student should plant at least one native tree species in their native place/place of stay, such as village / town / city / hills / seacoast , etc.
“The student should submit GPS coordinates/site location along with the picture of plant to the respective College / Department / Centre.
The picture should have a placard containing details, such as name of the tree, name and course of the student, location and date of plantation,” the notification said.
It said the student needs to take care of the tree planted by herself/ himself by periodic monitoring while for long-term monitoring, the family members/ RWA/ local bodies may be involved, it read.
“Six-monthly monitoring report, photograph with some description of growth need to be submitted by the student to the respective college / department / centre. In case of loss of the planted tree, due to natural disaster or unforeseen circumstances, it may be replaced by another sapling and reported,” the notification said.
For undergraduate students, the guidelines have been made a part of compulsory course on environmental studies as a part of internal assessment. For postgraduate students, the guidelines will be a part of first semester of each master programme which will be certified by respective HOD, while for Ph.D. students, the guidelines have been made a part of the Ph.D. course work.
This needs to be certified by the Supervisor and Head of the Department (HOD). (PTI)
