IIT Roorkee hosted a seed ball making event at the IIT Roorkee Nursery on 15th and 16th June 2019. The event for seed ball making was organized to ready the seed balls. These were balls made out of mud embedded with seeds of trees to be grown. The raw materials that comprised of sieved earth mixed with manure and seeds were provided by the institute itself.
The event was coordinated by Prof Avlokita Agrawal along with Horticulture wing of IIT Roorkee.
The seeds for different trees were procured from the IITR campus. The different seeds that were procured for planting included Amaltas, Sar, Gulmohar, Harsinger, Kumbhi, Sirish, Arjun and Sahjan. All these trees are common to the region and therefore require little maintenance and no special care.
A good amount of volunteers from all ages – elderly to young, joined the event as early in the morning at 7 am. The volunteers comprised of faculty, staff, students, their families and even locals from the Roorkee town. “Apart from contributing to the greenery of the earth, this event proved fruitful in other ways as well. We were able to disengage from technology and indulge in nature we look forward to joining more hands in the community to make the earth greener” said Prof. M. Parida, Deputy Director, IITR.
At the end of the event they were able to ready 6000+ seed balls. Post the event , all these balls will be released on an identified patch of land in the city after the first few rains. Assuming 10% rate of success, the seed balls would be able to plant 2 acres of land this year leading to fruitful results and a greener environment.
About IIT Roorkee
IIT Roorkee is an institute of national importance imparting higher education in engineering, sciences, management, architecture and planning, and humanities and social sciences. Since its establishment in 1847, the Institute has played a vital role in providing technical manpower and know-how to the country. In the Times Higher Education Asia University Rankings 2019, the institute has been ranked 3rd among the IITs, while on the citations criterion it has been ranked 1st among all the Institutes in India. IIT Roorkee is an institution with pioneering contribution in the field of education, training, research and development, advisory services in various fields including hydro, hydrology, water resources, geology, earthquake, renewable energy and environmental management advisory and has world class laboratories related to hydropower and water sector.
