MJC students visit Nilgiri Biosphere Nature Park

           On 12^th 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