SHILLONG, July 7: Joining hands for a green initiative, a team of operation Clean-Up (OCU) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Shillong successfully conducted a plantation drive around the institute campus on Saturday.
The OCU team was invited by IIM Shillong for a joint tree plantation drive around the sprawling campus at New Shillong Township. Students of IIM Shillong were enthusiastically involved in the plantation drive led by Venu, the person in charge of overseeing the greenery around the campus.
IIM professor Teidor Lyngdoh, who is currently in charge of the Institute’s outreach programme and has been engaged with schools around Shillong to give then a feel of what a management institute is about, has also teamed up with OCU to involve the students in a more immersive learning environment through their interface with the local communities.
Director of IIM Shillong, Prof DP Goyal, also participated in the tree plantation drive and was grateful to the OCU for not only planting fruit trees around the campus but for also donating hundreds of fruit trees to the institute. “We want to see IIM Shillong as a model campus with greenery all around and we will ensure that all the trees planted are looked after well,” Goyal said.
The fruit trees planted included oranges, plum, peaches, pomegranate and the fast-disappearing ‘Soh-iong’, once a common sight in Shillong and its suburbs.
Prof Teidor Lyngdoh introduced the OCU team to the students and faculty of IIM Shillong and briefed them about the work undertaken by the team in cleaning rivers around Shillong. He also committed to teaming up in this endeavour to rejuvenate the dying rivers in Shillong.
Jiwat Vaswani, vice president, OCU, urged the students of IIM Shillong not to plant trees only to forget about them later. “Trees can feel and we have to talk to them and nurture them. One day, when they bear fruit, it will be a blessing to those who will be studying in the Institute. And when those of you who have planted the trees revisit your alma mater and see the full grown trees, you will feel so gratified,” Vaswani said, adding that this is the least we can do to give back to the nature all that we have taken from her and also leave a better earth for the future generation.
After the planting drive at IIM Shillong, the OCU team then went to Martin Luther Christian University campus at Umsawli to also plant fruit trees of different varieties.
