Coimbatore : Acknowledging the conservation activities done by the Centre for Urban Biodiversity Conservation and Education (CUBE) at the Singanallur Lake here, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CUBE to authorise the conservation and nature conservation activities at the Singanallur Lake, today.
Coimbatore : Acknowledging the conservation activities done by the Centre for Urban Biodiversity Conservation and Education (CUBE) at the Singanallur Lake here, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CUBE to authorise the conservation and nature conservation activities at the Singanallur Lake, today.
In an event organised at the Singanallur Lake as part of World Environment Day celebrations on Wednesday, Sravan Kumar Jatavath, the Commissioner of CCMC and President of CUBE also inaugurated the Nature Education activity for the academic year 2019-2020.
Sravan Kumar handed over binoculars and field guides to students from Corporation Schools who were to take part in the Nature Education Program which will be held at the Singanallur Lake thrice a week (Monday, Wednesday and Friday). Students from schools belonging to CCMC and private schools can participate in the program that fetched over 6000 student participants during the previous academic year.
While this was done as an extension activity with the consent of CCMC in the previous year, the program has also been authorised through the MoU, which allows CUBE to carry out other conservation activities including setting up medicinal plants garden, butterfly garden and nursery.
CCMC Commissioner Sravan Kumar said that the organisation was also allowed to set up necessary nature education components including awareness boards, weather station, amphitheatre and an interpretation centre.
“This should help people come to the lake and blend with nature, so that they can learn about Lake Ecosystem and its importance. Overall, the activities done here would conserve the biodiversity of the lake and make this lake as a model urban wetland addressing all the ecological aspects,” informed Sravan Kumar.
Encouraging the organisation to carry out research and create a scientific database of the biodiversity of the lake, he also assured to take stern action against the illegal fishing done at the lake despite the prevalence of a ban on commercial fishing there. Notably, an official ban on fishing was announced at the Singanallur Lake by the Minister of Urban Administration, S P Velumani in December 2018. However, commercial fishing continues to thrive at the lake.
Later in the day, D Venkatesh, District Forest Officer and Vice President of CUBE spoke on the importance of controlling air pollution, which was the theme of this year’s Environment Day celebrations. Exclaiming that there were no branches for earth, he advised students to take care of the environment as their homes.
As part of the celebrations, a Medicinal Plants Garden and Arboretum of endangered trees were opened at the lake. Seed balls were also thrown on the Miyawaki patches on the lake bund.
The Wildlife Warden of Coimbatore, C Badrasamy, Deputy Commissioner of CCMC, S Prasanna Ramasamy, City Engineer of CCMC, A Lakshmanan, B Nagarajan the Scientist from the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding were present. Students from CCMC schools, Jayendra Saraswathy Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School and Don Bosco Anbu Illam also participated in the event.