IIT Bhubaneswar conducts massive plantation drive at primary schools across the Khudupur, Podapoda and Kansapada villages as part of Unnat Bharat Abhiyan

30th Aug, 2019 Bhubaneswar: Horticulture Department along with National Service scheme (NSS) team, IIT Bhubaneswar under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan (UBA) conducted a plantation drive across all the primary schools of Khudupur, Podapoda, Kansapada villages in association with Youth Booth, a group of youth volunteers. Khudupur, Podapoda, Kansapada are among the three of the six villages adopted by IIT Bhubaneswar under UBA. The motive behind this campaign was to promote a greener ecosystem along with providing a pollution-free atmosphere to the residents and to recreate the lost greenery during the course of super-cyclone, Fani, that had hit the state 03rd May, 2019. The saplings had been collected from Forest Department, Government of Odisha by Youth Booth.

“We at IIT Bhubaneswar are committed towards building a sustainable ecosystem and aim to create a good sense of social responsibility towards our Mother Nature and eco-friendliness among the students through this initiative. Through such initiatives, we would also want to set an example through our students and motivate the residents and school children to contribute to the protection of the environment as active stakeholders, who would like to give back to our mother nature by contributing to a sustainable ecosystem. Such initiatives, I am sure would help in creating more awareness about the importance of growing trees to prevent global warming and thereby reducing pollution and also help in quickly restoring the enormous lots of greenery destroyed during the course of super cyclone Fani in the Southern Orissa Coast,” said Prof. R.V. Raja Kumar, Director, IIT Bhubaneswar

The plantation of the trees was successfully carried out as per the planned schedule. A large no. of plant saplings of different size were planted during the plantation drive carried across the primary school belonging to the villages of Khudupur, Podapoda, and Kansapada. Also present at the event were Dr. Seema Bahinipati (Co-Coordinator, UBA), Dr. M. Sabarimalai Manikandan (Professor-in-charge, Horticulture), Dr. Snehasis Chowdhuri (NSS Programme Officer) and Dr. Bankim Chandra Mandal (EAA Co-Coordinator), IIT Bhubaneswar. The plantation drive was done with lot of enthusiasm by the IIT students and joined by select students from the respective primary schools. Through today’s event, the students and residents felt intimately connected with nature in their efforts of building a green environment in and around. The seeds of social and environmental responsibility sown by Indian Institute of Technology, Bhubaneswar is sure to bear fruit in the near future and go a long way.

GLIMPSES FROM THE MASSIVE PLANTATION DRIVE CONDUCTED ACROSS PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF KHUDUPUR, PODAPODA AND KANSAPADA VILLAGES