Coimbatore: Following 25 weeks of successful Nature Trail for public, Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) along with the Centre for Urban Biodiversity Conservation and Education (CUBE) have started hosting children at the Singanallur Lake for an exclusive Nature Trail starting from Sunday.
Coimbatore: Following 25 weeks of successful Nature Trail for public, Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) along with the Centre for Urban Biodiversity Conservation and Education (CUBE) have started hosting children at the Singanallur Lake for an exclusive Nature Trail starting from Sunday.
The Nature Trail for Children that was inaugurated by Deputy Commissioner of CCMC, S. Prasanna Ramasamy, would be conducted on 2nd and 4th Sundays, every month. It maybe noted that the Nature Trail for general public will be conducted on 1st and 3rd Sundays.
Inaugurating the trail on Sunday, Prasanna Ramasamy said that it was a blessing for people in city environment to have such a natural habitat close by. "It is good to see that the natural habitat is preserved well in Coimbatore and the vegetation is also kept intact,” he said.
Prasanna Ramasamy also handed over fields guides and binoculars to the children who participated in the nature trail.
More than 25 children participated and were guided by veteran scientist C. Kunhikannan, Head of Biodiversity Division at the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB).
Talking about the Nature Trail, S. Varun said that it was being planned for a long while to have a non-academic, yet informative trail for children as the general nature trail may not help them understand better.
“Parents were also requesting us to conduct an exclusive trail for children, as they were following well with the information shared in the general trail. We have made sure that the trail for kids is activity based so that they learn well,” said S. Varun, Nature Educator at Singanallur Lake.
Earlier, a Butterfly Feeder was also inaugurated at the lake bund.
“Butterflies population has rapidly gone down due to rapid urbanisation, use of pesticide and monoculture. They are indicator species that cannot withstand heavy rains or too much heat, thus ending up decreasing, as a rise in global temperature is on. Hence, it is important to provide them support in that form of supplements,” Varun informed.
He further added that the Butterfly Feeder would be filled with ripe fruits, sugar solution, salts and minerals, which would provide ample nutrients to the Butterflies.
“Singanallur Lake is an apt place for setting up such a feeder as more than 100 species of butterflies have been spotted in the lake, including the rare Black-spotted Pierrot,” Varun noted.