INSTITUTION DISTINCTIVENESS
“Conserving Ecology and Biodiversity: Practices initiated by the College”
Podar College is one of the oldest private colleges in the state of Rajasthan. The college is well known for its quality education, infrastructure, and lush green campus. College is not only to educate students and make them graduates and postgraduates but it aims to transform students into productive and responsible citizens of the country. The legacy of the college speaks for itself by looking at its Alumni spread all over the world making their families, college, and the nation proud.
Biodiversity means the different types of species including humans found on the planet Earth. Conservation of Biological Diversity plays a pivotal role in maintaining the Earth’s environment. It is a well-known fact that if necessary steps to conserve Biological Diversity are not taken today it will become very challenging for the next generation to survive along with other living beings. To maintain this, the college has established an ECO & BIODIVERSITY CONVERSION CLUB to play its part to conserve Biological Diversity.
The Practices:
The main aim of the club is to initiate programs that help in conserving Biodiversity. The following are the programs initiated and implemented by the club:
Tree Plantation:
Our teachers and students are used to planting saplings on the occasion of Independence day, Republic day, Environment day, Scout day, etc. every year. But in the session of 2021-2022, we introduced a unique concept for motivating college staff members, college students, College Alumni, and people of the society to plant saplings using the use of Google form on the occasion of “Van Mahotsav” (1st to 7th July 2021) in the memory of the Corona martyrs who laid their lives due to lack of Oxygen during the Corona Pandemic. Unique features of this drive are as under:
- A total of15 States of India participated in this plantation drive
- All districts in the state of Rajasthan participated in this drive
- This initiative went international with participation by USA and UK
- All the staff members of the College, Students, and Alumni also participated in this plantation drive
- A total of 5324 saplings were planted simultaneously at different locations
Har Ghar Parinda
Although the College faculty and students installed “Parindas’ ‘ for the birds and other animals on important days every year, in the session of 2021-2022 we initiated a special program the name of which is “Har Ghar Parinda Abhiyan’ ‘. It was inaugurated on Earth Day, 22nd April 2022, and went up to 29th April 2022. Parinda is a small pot of clay that can be filled with water for birds. This program was initiated and started in memory of our ex-Chairman Late Shri Kantikumar R. Podar considering his love and affection for birds. The main essence of the program was that every person associated with it will install Parindas in or around his/her house at a location where it is accessible to the birds. The college motivated all its staff, students, Alumni Members, and other people in the society to participate in this week-long program.
The main points of this program are as under:
- Deputy Forest Officer, Mr. Rajendra Hooda was the chief guest of the program and he started the initiative by installing a Parinda on the college campus
- A google form was created for people interested to join this initiative
- A total of 1286 google forms were filled in for this initiative
- Around 4000 Parindas were installed in all as multiple Parindas were installed in each house and many were installed in non-residential areas
- More than 100 Parindas were installed in and around the college campus
- Every student installed 04 Pandas
Cleanliness Drive
The College has always been at the forefront when it comes to cleanliness. It believes in spreading the message of cleanliness. The college regularly conducts cleanliness drives in the past to set an example to society and this motivates and spreads awareness. College motivates all college staff members, students, college Alumni, and people of the society to participate in such drives.
The unique points of this Cleanliness Drive are as under:
- The drive begins within the college campus and then it covers other main roads and places in nearby areas
- All college staff members, students, college Alumni, and NSS Volunteers participated in this cleanliness drive
- All people participating in this drive took an oath to spread this message of cleanliness to as many people as possible in the true spirit
- College has been appreciated and recognized with an appreciation letter from Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi for Initiating and implementing the Cleanliness initiative.
Motivating students to protect the environment:
- Botany Department of the college organized 3 workshops on grafting, seedling, ornamental and commercial gardening in which they trained the students of different departments so that they can open their businesses and also support environmental protection and cleanliness.
Outcome:
The college has initiated the above programs with the participation of students. The club has been successful to motivate and spread the issues of Biodiversity and inculcate a sense of belongingness among society and students, which in turn has been able to realize their duties and responsibilities towards this alarming issue.
The cleanliness drive organized and implemented has been recognized by the Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi and the college has received an appreciation letter from the Prime Minister.
The college has also received an award from the Collector for the Tree Plantation drive undertaken by the college.
The club has been successful in increasing the number of waves of different species especially peacocks on the campus along with a variety of flora and fauna in the Botanical Garden located on the campus.