On 12th
December 2015 all the first year UG students from MJCAS, a total of 166 students from all disciplines along with seven members of the teaching faculty visited the Nilgiri
Biosphere Nature Park (NBNP) which is located at
Anaikatti, about 32km from Coimbatore. This was an initiative to give broad exposure to our students about the world around them, especially for making them aware of preservation of nature and its wealth.
We
started from MJC at 10.10am and reached Nilgiri Biosphere Nature Park, the destination at around 12.30pm. The Nilgiri Biosphere Nature Park is an initiative of the Coimbatore
Zoological Park Society (CZPS) established in the 1986 to promote conservation
of the fauna and flora of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. The Nilgiri Biospehere
Nature Park (NBNP) is registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration
Act, 1975.
The main objective of visit NBNP is
to create awareness among the students regarding the natural heritage of the Nilgiri biosphere. A Zoo at the NBNP is
aimed at attracting people to this location. Since its establishment, NBNP has
successfully restored and helped growth of many different vegetation types -
over 430 species of 25,000 plants of which 85 species are found only in NBR. It
is interesting that nearly 30% of these 85 species are endangered.
NBNP's collection of threatened
plant species has been recognized by the National Botanical Research Institute
(NBRI), Lucknow and Botanical Garden Conservation International (BGCI), UK.
There is a nature trail (about 1.2 km) at the NBNP on which the visitor can
experience the joy and thrill of seeing some of the rare plants, birds, snakes,
butterflies and insects. There are over 100
species of birds, 20 species of reptiles, 22 species of amphibians, 18 species
of mammals, and 300plus invertebrates. NBNP’s initiative is actively supported
and promoted by well known industrialists and philanthropists of Coimbatore. Three guides helped us to visit the farm,
followed by lunch. We reached back at MJC at 5.00pm.
This was a great experience for our students.
Report by Dr R. Vijayalakshmi
