IQAC CUSAT

About image

REPORT OF GREEN CAMPUS INITIATIVES

CUSAT has emerged as a forerunner in the environment friendly activities in the university campuses in Kerala. This year, the campus witnessed a full-fledged greening campus initiatives converging various activities of Departmental Initiatives, NSS units and CSR & Developmental Initiatives.

A wholistic perspective of green campus was visualised by CUSAT. The agenda of greening of campus includes

planting of trees

Safe to eat vegetable cultivation for making use of un utilised land

Providing universities’ stakeholders with safe to eat vegetable and fruits

Improving the visual green ambience of the campus

Improving the eco friendly campus by limiting use of fossil fuel enabled vehicles and introducing cycles at campus.

To achieve the green campus objectives of CUSAT, activities were organised on the following lines

Vegetables Cultivation

Institutional Cultivation
Idle to Idea Programme: Fallow land Cultivation
Growbag Vegetable Cultivation by NSS Units

Tree Plantation

Tree seedling plantation
Butterfly Park
Mangrove Plantation (at CUSAT and Community Plantation)
Miawaki Forest

Cycles at Campus

Cycles at campus

Awareness Campaigns/Seminars/Contests etc

Awareness campaigns, interactive sessions and student activities

Water Management Activities at CUSAT

Various water management initiatives at CUSAT

Institutional cultivation

KMSME, CUSAT

Norway

Institutional cultivation was undertaken by Kunjali Marakkar School of Engineering (KMSME) during the year 2020-2021. The cultivation of safe to eat vegetables was supported by department of Agriculture, Govt of Kerala. The department received an assistance of Rs. 83000/- from the Department of Agriculture, Govt of Kerala. The department is continued with the cultivation of vegetables in 2021-22.

Norway

Norway

School of Management Studies, CUSAT

Norway

Institutional cultivation was undertaken by School of Management Studies during the year 2021-2022. The cultivation of safe to eat vegetables was supported by department of Agriculture, Govt of Kerala. The department received an assistance of Rs. 99500/- from the Department of Agriculture, Govt of Kerala. Document attached in Annexure 6.

Norway

Idle to Ideal Programme

Fallow Land Cultivation Scheme

Norway

CUSAT main campus is located at Kalamassery in 189 acre campus area. There are lot of vacant spaces lying idle without being utilised for any productive purposes. The fallow land cultivation scheme of Govt of Kerala uses idle land by allocating it to farmers willing to undertake agriculture.

Norway

Contribution from CUSAT is in the form of rent free land, electricity and volunteer services of NSS units. Safe to eat vegetables are sold out to employees and student community in the campus itself.

Norway

Ideal to ideal programme has utilised 3.5 acres of fallow land in the campus and converted into fields of cultivation. The areas utilised include spaces available in ACARR campus of CUSAT, behind Students Amenity Centre, Ladies Hostel and space available between International School of Photonics and Department of Applied Chemistry. The programme started in January 2021 after entering into formal agreement with the Department of Agriculture, Govt of Kerala. Idle to Ideal programme was inaugurated by Adv, V.S Sunilkumar, Honourable Minister for Agriculture, Govt of Kerala. Farmers are supported by Department of Agriculture by providing subsidies also. So far the programme has been running successfully and has completed one crop season. Students involved in planting activities along with the farmers.

Norway

Crops included elephant foot yam, ladies finger, brinjal, salad cucumber, watermelon, tapioca, bitter gourd and amaranthus. The harvested vegetables were sold through a web platform (www.kambolam.com) organised by the Department of Agriculture, GoK, which operated on order and pick at the point of delivery mode.

Idle to Ideal continued to cultivate vegetables at CUSAT during 2021-22. CUSAT received the award for Institutional Cultivator for the year 2021 (Third prize at District level).

Norway

Honarable Vice Chancellor,CUSAT receiving "kanivellari" harvested at cusat

Norway

Bumper harvest of "kanivellari" harvested at cusat during march -april 2022

Norway

sale of vegetable harvested at CUSAT

Grow bag Cultivation by NSS Units of CUSAT

Norway

NSS Units of CUSAT undertook safe to eat vegetable cultivation at CUSAT by utilising the method of grow bag cultivation. Two NSS units undertook grow bag cultivation during the year 2020-2021 and 2021-22

Tree Seedling Plantations at CUSAT

World Environment Day Programme : 5th June 2021

Norway

As part of World Environment Day celebrations, (June 5th, 2021) , a tree planting drive was organised at CUSAT by the Division of Social Forestry, Department of Wildlife and Forests, Govt of Kerala. 260 trees saplings were planted at the location near to Centre for Budget Studies, CUSAT. The plantation programme was supported from the CSR contribution of Nippon Toyota Corporation Pvt Ltd, HMT Junction, Kalamassery. The plantation was carried out following a formal agreement entered with Division of Social Forestry, Central Region, Edappally.

Norway

Norway

Survival rate of the plants are very high. After one year, almost all plants have grown and the tree plantation is being extended in the succeeding years.

June 6th 2022: World Environment Day

Norway

We made an extension of the tree plantation on June 6th 2022, following the World Environment Day of the year. This time the sponsors were State Bank of India. We planted 100 fruit tree plants as part of the programme.

Norway

Norway

Butterfly Park

Norway

Green initiatives at CUSAT is gaining momentum with the recent addition of butterfly park at campus. Butterfly park is funded under the CSR initiatives of Nippon Motor Corporation Pvt Ltd, Kalamassery. Indigenous plants and trees that attract butterflies are planted in about more than half an acre space adjacent to the reservoir at CUSAT.

Norway

Students of School of Management Studies, NSS unit 09 of CUSAT, PhD scholars and other nature lovers are joining the planting initiative.

Norway

Inauguration of the planting programme was done by Prof. K. N Madhusoodhanan, Vice Chancellor along with Prof. P. G Sankaran, Pro Vice Chancellor, Dr. V. Meera, Registrar, Prof. K Girish Kumar, Director, IQAC, Prof. Sunoj S. M, Syndicate Member, Prof. Jagathy Raj V.P, Director, School of Management Studies, Mr. P. K Sureshkumar, Chief Environment Officer, Toyota Motor Corporation Pvt Ltd, Kalamassery and Dr Sangeetha K Prathap, Coordinator, CSR & Development Initiatives, CUSAT.

Norway

Norway

Mangrove Planation

Community Plantation Drive

Norway

Mangrove Plantation at Puthuvype, Njarakkal was carried out on 27th November 2021. Mangroves perform important ecological functions like nutrient cycling, hydrological regime, coastal protection, fish-fauna production, etc. Mangroves act as shock absorbers. They reduce high tides and waves and help prevent soil erosion

Norway

Norway

This community initiative is being organised to engage students in environment conservation activities in the community. Climate change has far reaching impact on the earth, for which participatory actions for conserving flora and fauna could be an appropriate strategy.

Norway

Norway

Miawaki Forests

Miawaki Forests

Norway

CUSAT hosts a miawaki forest in 10 cents in the campus. This was sponsored by KDisc in 2020. Miawaki in news : https://youtu.be/3AB_K__ts64

Eco friendly Conveyance

Cycles at Campus

Norway

The campus is inclined to protect the environment by reducing the usage of fossil fuel vehicles at campus. Alternative modes of conveyance has been introduced in the campus availing the cycles at campus facility offered by Kochi Metro Rail Corporation from its CSR funds. This was implemented under the CSR Funds and Development Initiatives of CUSAT.

MyBYK is the service provider entrusted for implementing the Cycles at campus initiative. At present, they have installed 4 cycle docks at campus each being offered with 6 cycles each. There are two docks being installed at Metro station premises also. The usage is controlled by an app and maintenance is done by the service provider. This is done on pay per use model for which various rental plans are available.

Awareness campaigns, interactive sessions and student activities

Awareness Session on Sacred Groves

An awareness programme on conservation of sacred groves was conducted on 3rd March 2021. The resource person for the session was Dr Kannan C S Warrier, Senior Principal Scientist at Institute of forest genetics & tree breeding, Coimbatore.

Norway

Norway

As a step towards understanding and sustaining mother nature, a photography competition was conducted among the volunteers and winners were appreciated.

Biodiversity Day Celebration

Norway

It was conducted on 22nd May 2021, NSS Unit 009 conducted an online competition providing a chance for volunteers to showcase the ethnic diversity of flora & fauna in and around their surroundings.

Environment and Wild Life quiz (March 19th 2021)

Norway

NSS Unit 009 collaborated with Division of Social Forestry, Department of Wildlife and Forests in conducting a quiz programme on Environment and Wildlife protection on March 19th, 2021, commemorative of World Forestry Day on March 21st.

Norway

This was an intercollegiate quiz programme, where participants from various CUSAT departments, St Pauls College, Kalamassery, Maharajas College Ernakulam, SH College, Thevara, St Theresa’s College, Ernakulam participated.

Environment and Wild Life quiz (6th October 2021)

Norway

NSS Unit 009 collaborated with Division of Social Forestry, Department of Wildlife and Forests in conducting a quiz programme on Environment and Wildlife protection on, commemorative of World Wildlife Week on 6th October 2021. This was an intercollegiate quiz programme conducted at School of Management Studies, CUSAT.

Norway

Norway