If techies and Technopark authorities have their way, Technopark, supposedly, India’s greenest IT park, will soon be greener still. “Collective efforts” are on to plant herbs, shrubs and trees in their hundreds on campus – and not just because it was World Environment Day. Techies say they don’t mind getting down and dirty to make the campus a true green paradise, helping to dig holes and planting it all themselves.
“Technopark is a green campus but when you look closer there is not much of diversity in the green canopy. Significant swathes are covered with invasive acacia trees that don’t really do much for the environment, not to mention there are several overgrown areas. We want to improve the biodiversity of the campus,” Divas Sadasivan, a member of campus green club Prakruthi. The organisation, along with Technopark’s Park Centre, has launched a rather ambitious plan, Project Vyvidhyam, to plant over 250 trees and 250 shrubs and creepers on campus, all of which they will be planting themselves.
“The idea is to gradually replace the acacia with fruit-bearing trees that will help the environment and attract fauna. We don’t mean the usual mango and jackfruit but plan to plant indigenous and increasingly rare trees such as neermarutham, neermathalam, kadambu, white pine, karimpana and the like,” adds Abhilash D.S., head of HR and Admin, Technopark.
Team Prakruthi has actually divided the campus into five areas, based on availability of land, to identify plots for planting. “For instance, there are some areas in car parks that lie empty. We’ve drawn up plans so as not to hinder existing parking space. In some other areas there is ample space between existing trees, while other spaces are only suitable for creepers and climbers,” says Divas.
The green team have already planted some 10 trees in connection with World Environment Day, also in conjunction with ‘Oru Kodi Vrikshathaikal’ programme of the Government of Kerala. “One of the MNCs on campus, which does not wish to be named at this point, has volunteered to help with the project and take care of annual maintenance. As such, some 55 employees of the company will help plant the trees in the first phase of the project, this weekend,” explains Biju Sundaran of Prakruthi. “The holes for the trees have been dug according to scientific guidelines set by the social forestry department. We’re hoping the roots take hold during the rainy season. Come summer, Technopark has promised a connection from its sewage treatment plant to make watering easier,” he adds.
As part of the project, Technopark and Prakruthi have also started planting a medicinal herb garden in a plot in front of Bhavani building. “The hill on which Park Centre now stands was known as Vaidyan Kunnu. Perahps there is some past connection with medicinal plants? We aim to plant 150 varieties of indigenous plants such as parijatham, brahmi, karinochi, vellanochi, aarogyapacha and so on,” says Abhilash.
For biodiversity (From top) The tree that straddles the wall between the campuses of IBS and TCS; Techies of Prakruthi take part in Project Vyvidhyam; Team Prathidhwani plants trees in Phase III
Employee organisations have also got into the act. Prathidhwani, a socio-cultural organisation of Technopark employees, planted 10 fruit-bearing trees, including mango and jackfruit, near the parking area of the campus’ Phase Three, again on World Enviornment Day. “It’s not enough if we simply plant and go; some of our members who work in Phase Three will be responsible for maintaining the saplings all year-around to ensure that the plants take root,” says Rajeev Krishnan, secretary of the organisation.
Greening attempts have been under way for a while now. Reportedly, TCS already has a fully grown herbal garden with over 40 varieties of medicinal herbs. A few multi-nationals with large campuses within Technopark have allotted a few cents of land for their employees for their employees to cultivate fruits and vegetables. For example, the folk of UST-Global recently started cultivating eight cents of land at the back of their new campus. “We planted chilli pepper, okra and beans. When we put out the proposal the response from the employees was huge and they quickly formed groups to take care of individual tasks like watering and checking on the plants. It started as a trial but it looks like it’s going to be a long-term project,” says Hema Menon, centre-head.
IBS too has earmarked a small plot near it’s car park for organic cultivation, a project which is set to kick off next week. Also, some MNCs even have fully grown orchards on campus. For instance, M Squared building in Phase I is surrounded by several fruit-bearing trees, including gooseberry, rambutans, sapota, mango, hog plums and coconuts, to name a few. TCS also has a fruit orchard with over 20 types of trees and a vermicompost unit, which is used for in-house agriculture activities.
For biodiversity (From top) The tree that straddles the wall between the campuses of IBS and TCS; Techies of Prakruthi take part in Project Vyvidhyam; Team Prathidhwani plants trees in Phase III
Techies are also stepping up efforts to retain trees on campus. In a show of green solidarity, IBS and TCS decided to retain the massive tree that straddles their individual campuses while constructing a compound wall.
