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The
Department of Botany has announced that the Dedication Ceremony of Prof. T. C. Joseph Botanic Garden
will be held on Saturday 10th January 2009 as part of the
alumni reunion. The Rt. Rev. Dr.
Zacharias Mar Theophilus Suffragan Metropolitan,
distinguished old student and member of UC
College Standing Council, will be the chief guest.
John Medamana, an old
student of the college asked:
"Do you have any more
information regarding the UCC botanical garden? How large is the garden?
What type of plants will the garden have? Will there be an arboretum?"
Dr. Thara Simon replied as follows:
Dear Mr. John,
Thank you for your interest in the Botanic garden. In a fast growing
world, the challenges in academic field have to be addressed in
diverse forms. The primary task of the Department was to get financial
help for the needy students. We are thankful to Mr. Jacob Philipose
from Calgary (B. Sc Botany, 1st Batch) for setting up an endowment of
Rs. One Lakh every year.
The major Jubilee project is the Botanic Garden in memory of Prof. T.
C. Joseph, our beloved teacher and founder head of the Department. UCC
is blessed with beautiful landscape and the Department has been given
enough space to develop the botanic garden complex. (a herbal garden
and an arboretum). The renovation of arboretum is in progress. The
project has been accepted by the Governing Board of the college as an
alumni project of the Department. The expected estimate is Rs. 12. 3
lakhs, of which construction of the rockararium and pond is over.
The itemized budget:
| Arboretum |
2.8 Lakh |
| Green house (with humidity controlled env.)
|
2.0 Lakh |
| Glass house (with cooling system) |
5.2 Lakh |
| Rockerarium and pond |
1.5 Lakh |
| Rain water harvesting |
0.8 Lakh |
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Total
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12.3 Lakh |
The members of the Department have been keen on planting seedlings of
rare and endangered species category; currently we are getting the
seedlings from M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Kalpatta. In
connection with the 80th Birthday of Prof. Swaminadhan, they have a
project of distributing seedlings of 80 endangered species. Two of our
Ph. D. research scholars are working on rare trees.
Two months back, we received a seedling of an olive tree, which is
slowly coming up, We have also initiated a sub-project ( rather
difficult, but for the benefit of students !!!) of representing
plants of all the 200 families in Bentham and Hooker's
classification, in pots.
We are indeed inspired by the generous encouragement received from our
Principal, Manager and Bursar and all members of the Governing Board
for their whole hearted support in this project.
We would greatly appreciate if you can contribute seedlings of
medicinal herbs and plants of RET category.
Thanks again.
Thara
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