by Ms. Aruna Thosar-Dixit, PRO (IIT Bombay) _______________________________________________________________

Its the tail end of the monsoon here at the IIT Campus. One of  the loveliest of times, as, except for a few light showers, a  blue and clean sky covers our thickly wooded campus, the hills  are still green and the Powai lake still abundantly full. I can go on about the butterflies flitting about and birds... but you'll say desist, we get the picture. You must blame this rhapsody of the natural beauties of the Campus on the the location of my office, (3rd floor Main Building) which to my benefit has the best view from the main building and is to the disadvantage of visitors who have to trek 3 floors up to the public relations office.

I may be biased, but the fact remains that the 520 acres of land given to IIT for its campus at Powai in 1958, was unique. Unique because it was a piece of land encircling on one side the Powai lake, on another side it was bordered by undulating hills and the Vihar lake. It had marshy land, gentle slopes, steep gradients - a variation in terrain plus rich vegetation making for a picturesque and unique location.

In the four decades of it existence as the IIT Campus, the green cover on this land has increased. Staff and students who lived here in the 1st decade, on visiting recently , have commented on the large trees and abundant greenery everywhere. How has this been possible, when there has been equal development of academic, hostel, residential and other built up areas, besides roads, and grounds and parking sites?

One reason has been that a conscious effort in planning has been made to preserve the natural assets and strike a balance. Recent examples - while building the new faculty multistorey residence not a single tree was cut; when the School of Management building was started, at least 6 large trees were carefully transplanted and are flourishing. The result is that even in the inhabited areas, the spaces between buildings and along the roads have thick vegetation.

In IIT's master plan, there is an area of about 56 acres, along the Powai lake, behind staff hostel and hostels 8 and 9, which is earmarked as conserved land. They have called it "eco self sustaining zone". This site is probably one of the few pieces of land in Mumbai, which still retains its original natural forest cover. The Bombay Natural History Society regularly arranges bird watching and nature treks in this area.

Every year, IIT holds a "Vanamahotsav" during which a tree planting drive is initiated. It was during one such festival that four acres of land behind hostel 3 was prepared and cultivated as a medicinal plants nursery with over 90 varieties of trees, plants, creepers of medicinal value. Last year, teak saplings were planted on the lower hill slopes. And this year, a malodorous wasteland area in front of the faculty residential building called "Whitehouse", was cleared and leveled and planted with gulmohur,indian laburnum, festal palm and other saplings.

Then, there are the cultivated areas (some artistically, some usefully, some 'wildly') around the academic buildings, hostels, hospital, guest house, et al. The staff members residing on ground floor of a residence, lay claim to a portion of the land, fence it off untidily but picturesque and a delightful village-like backyard develops of coconut and banana, rose and mogra, drumstick and cudipatta. There are residential gardens in IIT Campus, where the mango, coconut, jackfruit, jammun, amla or badam tree planted years ago by one resident is bearing fruit now to the enjoyment of the present resident.

Sound idyllic? It is, particularly in comparison to Mumbai city, which is now only a boundry wall away. In our official literature we have claimed that we have increased the green cover, rich in flora and fauna. The claim is justified and the leopards visiting the Campus so freely certainly seem to think so!