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Blog
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Foreword
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Childhood, that chimeric phase in one’s life, where the one going through it, just wants to get done with it and those who have emerged on the other side wish to return to. All at once enchanting, perplexing, astonishing, amusing and challenging, this chapter of our lives is the longest and an often visited one. It is also the most important, as the experiences that shape childhood is the basis or building block of adult life. It is the foundation stone so to speak and, therefore, it is only natural that the Fundamatics team decided to dedicate an entire issue to this magical theme.
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A Treasure Hunt
Once upon a time, there was a small boy who lived in a big city. But he wished to live by the big, blue sea. One day, something wonderful happened. His parents took him to the seaside. The boy’s heart danced with joy.
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Our Green Campus
April, 2020
No one knew that it would be like this. The reality of a pandemic is also the stillness of silence.
The nature of this silence is different; it is more an absence of manmade noise. Now there are no errant voices drifting across from the hostels, no sound of autos and sundry other vehicles laboring up the Sameer hill, the distant sound of traffic and horns that drift across the lake, not even the occasional construction equipment.
This is not the first time Fundamatics has dedicated an issue to the campus. This, after all, is not a typical university green space with formal, manicured gardens and lawns but a more naturalistic biodiverse landscape – a beautiful anachronism placed smack dab in the middle of an urban megapolis of Mumbai.
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Declining Biodiversity in IIT Bombay
Maps of the institute invariably show a spur of land jutting out into the Powai Lake from the place where the trio postgraduate hostels stand. Upon this piece of land lies an impressive forest extending to the shores of the lake. This forest is part and parcel of IIT Bombay but rarely frequented by campus residents because the entrance to it is subtly hidden away from view. In fact, this peninsula, which has been known as Kol Dongri for long, can be considered an extension of the Sanjay Gandhi National Park to the north. Dubbed the El Dorado of birdwatching by none other than Dr Salim Ali (1896-1987), the “Birdman of India”, Kol Dongri is important for the unique geography that it sits on: it provides a woody and marshy ecosystem and is a waypoint for several species of migratory birds. Over the last couple of decades, Kol Dongri has been chipped away at for various purposes, most notably to build three student hostels and to house a construction workers’ camp. Today, the Kol Dongri forest has been reduced to nearly half of what it used to be just two decades ago.
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Team Zero Waste
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Core Members of Team Zero Waste
A mountain of disposable waste has become a norm for large scale gatherings and events, with IIT Bombay being no exception. Whether it is the half marathon, Mood Indigo, Techfest or any other big event, heaps of waste especially that of disposable plastic bottles has become a usual sight. Serious rethinking and efforts are needed to conduct such mass gatherings in an environmentally sustainable manner. One such effort was made by Team Zero Waste during the IIT Bombay Half Marathon, which is annually held on the campus in October.
Team Zero Waste, is a student organisation for students from various programmes and disciplines at IIT. It aims to improve the management of waste at IIT Bombay and to reduce the amount of waste that is sent to the Kanjurmarg landfill.
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Seeds of Change – Segregation at Source @ IITB Hostels
Eat, attend classes, study and sleep – it’s the same daily routine for every inmate in IIT Bombay hostels. In this process, students also send their trash to the Kanjurmarg landfill through the current waste management process. This out-of-sight, out-of-mind approach towards the waste generated by every student has had our waste entering a myriad of places including landfills, oceans and waterways brimming with trash. A significant part of this jumbled up mess can be put to reuse, however, it becomes challenging to segregate the recyclables from the waste as it is compacted before dumping in landfills.
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Tales of Glory
When you live on a green verdant campus it is almost expected that you would be interested in nature and wildlife. I have been captivated by animals as a whole since I was young, but my interest in photography and the avian genus began in the thick forests of Kanha National Park. Renowned nationwide for its tigers, leopards and other exotic animals it holds a special place in my heart for igniting my passion for birds.
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Keeping the Campus Green
NSS team members, IIT Bombay: Top row (left to right) Jahanvi Akanksha, Tejaswini Narwade and Vaibhavi Agrawal; Middle row (left to right): Shaan Ul Haque, Shubham Varankar, Saieesh Jirwankar, Yatendra Gupta. Bottom row (left to right): Hari Krishna Sai and Kushank Jaiswal.
Whenever one visits the IIT Bombay campus, the thing that can never go unnoticed is the green cover in the midst of the metropolitan city. Our institute being blessed by such great floral diversity, we at Green Campus NSS IIT Bombay put in dedicated efforts in binding together humans with this nature.
If you do ever have a walk along the roadsides, the white placards on the trees are something that catches everyone’s eye. Four years ago when there were none of these, no one ever bothered to notice the greenery. With a vision to make people stand by these trees and make them appreciate the resources we have in the institute, the team of Green Campus department of NSS IIT Bombay went on identifying the species of the trees on several routes in the Institute. Within a few weeks, all those trees had a placard that identified the tree.
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Cutting Through Disconnection
‘Did you see the video? A leopard was roaming the campus at night!’
‘How did it even get there?’
‘Where was security?’
‘What about our kids who go to school there?’
‘They should hire armed security to ensure safety.’
The evening news and evening-after WhatsApp group-messaging binge make a cocktail laced with paranoia masking as a parental concern.
I re-read the messages, spotted a rat snake lick the window wire-mesh and after a boring while, slither down the wall.
I’ve become cautious with my watching – holding back on the immediate allocation of harmful intent – to a living creature I do not understand.