The World Environment Day celebrations on Saturday will highlight the importance of the rich diversity of trees on the Tagore Theatre premises, one of the few surviving green lungs in the city.
The premises have been documented by Friends of Trees, a city-based NGO, as part of its annual exercise.
The survey has revealed that the ground, covering an area of 2.5 hectares, has 296 trees belonging to 51 species, 46 genus and 21 families. The mapping programme was taken up as a prelude to the World Environment Day celebrations. During the survey, volunteers identified each tree by species and measured it. A tree register was prepared to identify each tree by its local name, scientific name, family, girth and location on the campus. A booklet based on the register was also prepared. According to C.K. Karunakaran, general secretary, Friends of Trees, the diversity of trees is fairly satisfactory, but for the presence of a large number of copper pod (46) (Peltophorum pterocarpum) and mahagony (18).
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The survey report says that Polyalthia trees form an excellent green wall on the western side of the ground, insulating the complex from the dust and smoke of the heavy traffic on the road.
The study names shade and fruit bearing trees like mango, jack fruit, ayani, tamarind and jaman; flowering trees like jacaranda, Indian laburnum, gulmohar, fountain tree and queen's flower and timber yielding trees like teak, rosewood, bija sal and maddi. It also notes the presence of medicinal species like neem, banyan and sandal. The Tagore Theatre campus is the 15th institution taken up by Friends of Trees for documentation of tree wealth. In the previous years, the NGO had mapped the premises of the Government College for Women, University College, Government Arts College, College of Engineering, All Saints College, Ayurveda College, Central Polytechnic, Sanskrit College, Music College, Fine Arts College, Balabhavan, Golf Club, Cotton Hill School, and the office of the Accountant General.