GCT students plant 450 saplings in one minute

COIMBATORE: While afforestation is the need of the hour, it seems doing it the conventional way has become passe. Campuses in the city have taken up afforestation and are doing it with style.
While National Service Scheme (NSS) volunteers of Bharathiar University and affiliated colleges planted 10,000 saplings in three minutes in an effort to create Bharati Vanam, a mini forest, on the campus last month, students of the Government College of Technology (GCT) in the city on Sunday planted 450 saplings on the campus in one minute.
The drive was taken up by the members of the college’s Green Club. As many as 240 students participated in the drive, co-ordinator V Manikandan said. “Each of us planted two saplings. We dug the pits and had readied the saplings by peeling off the covers early on Sunday morning. At 9.20am, we planted the saplings simultaneously and finished it at 9.21am,” he said.
College principal P Thamarai, in-charge of Green Campus initiative Rama Devi and staff co-ordinator of Green Club S Murugan supported the drive.
The students planted duranta, which grows up to five feet and also wears an aesthetic look. They said they wanted to increase the green cover on the campus in the years they spend there.
The saplings were provided by Nizhal Maiyam, a city-based service organisation, which also supported the drive. Its founder B Murugan said that while they had planted trees in public places and also on some college campuses, this was the first time they had planted so many saplings in such a short time. “Students came up with the idea of planting about 500 saplings in on minute. We sourced the saplings for them,” he said.