Varanasi: The lush green campus of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and the clean and verdant Diesel Locomotive Works (DLW) premises present a pleasant picture in the city which has almost lost its green cover to urbanisation.
Even President Pranab Mukherjee seemed impressed with the greenery as he stepped on the BHU campus to deliver the centennial lecture last month. Governor Ram Naik in his speech highlighted how greenery on the campus inspired him.
Plantation drives are carried out in BHU from time to time to maintain the green cover and also make the environment more environment-friendly.
A plantation drive by faculty members and students of faculty of law will be carried out on the occasion of World Environment Day on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the township area of the DLW consists of over 1 lakh big and small trees. As per the claims of authorities, the organization has a green cover of 40% of its total area. In 2014-15, around 4,000 saplings were planted in the premises.
DLW general manager Ashok Kumar Harit said that the organization is striving to achieve 'Clean DLW Green DLW'. Protection and conservation of environment began in late 1980s when DLW took the lead in 'Clean Ganga' campaign by installing two treatment plants, one sewage treatment plant (STP) for treatment of human waste and another industrial effluent treatment plant (IETP) for treatment of contaminated and mixed petroleum oil and lubricants.
In IETP, around 3,000 litres of oil and grease is segregated and sold off. In STP, around 3 million litres of water is recycled everyday. The treated water from STPs is being used for irrigation of lawns, sports ground, green patches and filling of water bodies.
Keeping in mind the need of energy conservation and to tap non-conventional energy resources, 103 solar lights are fitted in the workshop and colony, 30 solar water heaters with capacity of 500 litres per day have been installed in hospitals and officers' guest house. As many as 227 energy-efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs) are also fitted at DLW. Besides, roof-mounted solar power plants with capacity of 395 KWP are being planned.
The Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, had also formulated its own green committee in January 2013. It comprises faculty members of IIT-BHU and BHU experts and a students' wing called 'Green Club', which focuses on evoking a sense of responsibility among the students to make them aware about how their daily choices could affect earth.
According to chairman, IIT-BHU Green Committee S Hadi Hasan, the committee is working on implementation of waste segregation in the institute along with fabrication of solid waste management and treatment plant which would work on 'energy from waste' concept. Besides, a plant for treatment of human waste is also in the offing. The committee is also keen on taking up projects on solar energy, hydrogen fuel and biomass in collaboration with different departments of BHU in future.
