BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION and Shramdaan Camp organised at GNDU

Amritsar, March 19, 2013: The Department of Botanical and Environmental Sciences of the Guru Nanak Dev University under the aegis of National Environment Awareness Campaign (NEAC) organised One day "Biodiversity Conservation and Shramdaan Camp".

Prof. A.K. Thukral, Director of Research was the chief guest and made the judgment of various events on this occasion.

Prof. Renu Bhardwaj detailed the importance of plant biodiversity which was followed by Dr. Adarsh Pal Vig, Head of the Department, who emphasized on the need of extra-curricular field activities in academic life.

The botanical garden having richness of more than 500 plant species was divided into different sections for cleaning by the students and the scholars under the supervision of faculty members by Dr. A.S. Soodan (Taxonomy Expert). He also briefed the audience about the layout of the garden, its biodiversity and stressed upon further efforts to conserve and append the current biodiversity.

Prof. Thukral detailed the importance of manual work and physical labour in the life of young people. At the end of the day the best cleaned area/sections of botanical garden was observed by Prof. A.K. Thukral and results were declared for the Shramdaan camp.

In the "Sharmdaan camp" first position went to M.Sc. Environment Sci. Semester II and M.Sc Botany Semester IV students, the second rank was shared by the New Ph.D., M.Phil., B.Sc., and M.Sc Environment Semester IV students. Third prize was awarded to M.Sc. Botany Semester II and old Ph.D. students.

The Department has been organizing various awareness programs and activities of Punjab State Council for Science and Technology (PSCST), Chandigarh , every year under the NEAC grant sponsored by MoEF, GOI, New Delhi . The event was organized by Faculty advisor, Dr. Indu Sharma. On this occasion, EcoTainment Hour was focussed to organize various competitions and activities such as seed-collection, thought-provoking environmental slogans, painting, potted plants/flowers, cleaning of the botanical garden and plantation campaign that were undertaken by graduate, post graduate students (90), research scholars (66), faculty (13) and non teaching and maali staff (25) of the department.

On this occasion, potted plant competition, seed-collection display competition, thought provoking environmental slogan writing competition, painting competition, tug-of the-war, lemon-spoon race, 100 meter race, one-leg and three-legged race were also organized.