The 37-acre campus of Jyothi Engineering College, Cheruthuruthy, has given shape to a natural ‘oxygen factory’ with the help of 350-odd bamboo groves.
The lush green clumps are the fruition of an effort put in by Fr. Roy Joseph Vadakkan, secretary and campus head of the college, which comes under Syro-Malabar Catholic Archdiocese of Thrissur. He had taken up the greening project 11 years ago.
“Bamboo provides 30-35% more oxygen than any other plant. It is estimated that one adult human being requires about 850 g oxygen in a day. A fully grown bamboo tree generates 300 kg oxygen a year, which is sufficient for a person for the whole year,” says Fr. Vadakkan on the eve of World Bamboo Day on September 18.
Planting bamboo is one of the best ways to conserve the environment. It reduces carbon footprint, helps fight global warming, and balances oxygen and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. “Nowadays, corporate companies grow bamboo on their campus to claim that their campus is carbon-neutral,” he points out. “Our campus was a rubber estate earlier. We started planting bamboo around the college buildings on about 20 acres. Now there are 15 types of bamboo here.”
When he launched the initiative in 2010, his objective was to provide a green campus for the 2,000-odd students here. The lush green campus provides them an ideal ambience to pursue their studies. Most of the students are from various cities, and for them, such greenery is a luxury.
“Bamboos not only create an oxygen-rich, green campus but also reduce the temperature inside the buildings by about four degree Celsius. Now our campus houses lots of birds and even giant squirrels,” says Fr. Vadakkan.
“Our campus is situated on a slop and studies have proved that bamboo groves hold water and soil and thus stop landslips,” says the priest who is also active in the conservation efforts of the Bharathapuzha.
