Summer camps are normally about songs, dances, games, and classes on diverse aspects of life. Participants at a summer camp being organised by the Kerala Gandhi Smarak Nidhi in the city had much more in store for them on Thursday — a tour of the verdant Swathi Thirunal College for Music campus, seeing and experiencing the girth and might of trees, some of them more than a century old.
Two century old
“The centre of attraction was the Indian Bullet Tree which would be over 200 years old,” said M. Veena, who coordinated the tour on behalf of city-based Tree Walk. The 50 participants in the camp were divided into three groups and taken around to experience the cool pleasance of the canopied college campus. The students spent several minutes beneath the banyan tree, before moving on to a bamboo clump, a towering tamarind, rain tree, and neem, listening intently to the resource persons accompanying them explaining the special features of each tree. “We now know that the rain tree and the tamarind tree are crucial in reducing the temperature in the atmosphere by absorbing carbon dioxide,” said a student attending the camp.
In addition to educating the campers on the importance of trees, the Tree Walk volunteers also made the session interactive with stories. A song on trees by Sugathakumari was also taught. The group recorded 25 different species on the premises of the college.
Green lung
The students were also introduced to the concept of green lung, which are regions where trees grow together. “Only if the children have a bond with the trees, will they care about saving plants. We are trying to create a relationship between them and the plants, which would lead them into making choices beneficial to the environment in the future,” said Ms. Veena.
