IE : To learn biodiversity students create a herbal garden : Sept 20,2007
To learn biodiversity, students create a herbal garden in school campus
Spread across 120 sq metre, the garden will enable them to understand use
of different medicinal plants
EXPRESS NEWS SERVICE
SEPTEMBER 19
IN A bid to find out innovative ways of learning outside the four walls of a
classroom, students of Army school in Colaba have come up with a novel idea.
To learn the science of biodiversity, the students have created a herbal
garden by preparing beds of medicinal plants right in their school campus.
The garden, prepared on the land measuring 120 square metre, was inaugurated
on Wednesday by Brigadier Arjun Menon, Commander, Mumbai sub area.
Earlier, the Army Welfare Education Society had issued a directive to all
the Army schools in the country stating that students must know the
importance of medicinal plants on a practical basis and for this, they
should create a herbal garden in their campuses.
According to Chief Public Relation Officer (CPRO) of the Defence Ministry, A
Lambhate, this unique attempt of students to have a herbal garden will not
just help them in knowing the use of different medicinal plants, but also
help them in practicing day-to-day preventive health measures.
To help the students understand usages of various plants, a comprehensive
data on different types of ayurvedic and medicinal plants was collected by
Dean of RA Podar Ayurvedic Medical College. The garden was then divided into
small plots of different shapes so that the plants grow systematically.
At present, students are in the process of learning the basic utilities of
these plants. Elaborating on use of some of the plants, Lambhate informed
that the garden has medicinal plants like Alhatoda – which cures cough and
cold, Centella, which is a tonic for hair and brain, Plumbago- good for
curing skin diseases and Locknera used for anti-gastric and cancer problems.
“The saplings of these plants were procured from different nurseries and
later, placards depicting names of these plants and their usages were made
by the students,” said Lambhate.
And it’s not just an attempt to gain knowledge about biodiversity of plants,
the students also have a plan of action ready for their upcoming Biology
projects.
“Class 11 students of Biology will prepare a Herbarium file cataloguing and
recording growth of all the plants in the garden which will serve as a ready
reference for their project,” said Lambhate. During the inaugural function,
students also recited poems based on importance of plants and various
environmental issues.