GARDEN COMMITTEE

Garden of Kirori Mal College was planned in a beautiful manner since its inception and was given primary importance. Various lawns were created at different places within the college premises. These included Ashoka lawn, library lawn, hostel lawn, canteen lawn, herbal garden, staff room lawn. All these years these lawns have been well managed which made the college garden as one of the finest in Delhi University.

Beginning with the academic session (2019-20) saplings for summers were planted in the flower beds of Ashok lawn Various summer plants like cosmos, sunflower, Kochia etc. were used for adorning these beds.

The major challenge was taken up to clean up the college from construction debris. Huge amount of it was dumped behind the chemistry department. This was providing a shabby and ugly look to the place. Principal Madam took up the challenge and along with the garden committee started looking for it.

Dr. Ram Babu, the convener of Garden committee took up this work sincerely and started execution of the plan (May-june 2019) He asked the College Gardeners to first gather all the debris that was scattered here and there between the teacher’s residence and the chemistry lab department. This was herculean task and took around 20 days with all the gardeners at work. Huge amount of waste had collected and it was finally removed from the college. One can estimate the amount of work with the number of trucks that were required to remove it from the college. They were 20 approximately. Thereafter about 10 to 12 trucks of agricultural soil and three to four trucks of cow dung manure was dumped and spread throughout the area soil uniformly. As the area got cleaned and rejuvenated with the fresh soil it the place looked prettier. Now was the stage for plantation to convert the area into “Green Zone”. Mr. R.D. Shakya brought many plants for plantation work for the area. Garden committee and college is thankful to him. He had not only made these plants available to the college but also have been planting them with the help of college gardeners.College nursery also supplemented the plantation work by providing more plants.Now the plants have given out fresh sprouts and the area looks greener and lively. A Green Belt Project has been a success.

The garden committee has also taken step to purchase two new cyclerickshaw (July 2019) to increased its transportation efficiency of garden related material inside the college where it is required.

Another important and badly needed “system” for the college was instituted this year. In principle, Vermicomposting was always in pipeline but could never be instituted. Dr. Rambabu & Dr. Sunil dhiman (September 2019) took personal interest in this endeavour. Mr. R.D. Shakya not only provided the proper guidance for the technique but also the infrastructure for its execution. Four Vermicomposting chambers were placed and in the College Nursery. Leaves from the fall of October were used as raw material.Five months have passed and the compost is ready for use and the vermicomposting units are ready for fresh cycle.

In October 2019, preparation for the seasonal plants for oncoming winter and spring were done simultaneously. Gardeners, especially Ram lakhan, had prepared variety of seedlings including Dahlia’s, Dianthus, Phlox, Gerbera, Salvia, Marigold, Chrysanthemum, Mesembryanthemum etc. Ashoka lawn flower beds were also planted with many such seedlings

A significant number of new garden tools have been also introduced (Nov 2019) in the college garden this year on demand raised by gardener for their smooth functioning of day to day activities.

In the month of January 2020, many more plants were incorporatrd for the decoration of the College for College’s Founders Day and the spring season.

The Nursery green house (The protective shed for delicate plants) also has shown aging and was in bad shape. During this academic session (Jauary 2020) this shed was completely brought to a new life by increasing its strength. The old cloth was replaced by a new one of the better quality. The older frames were reinforced by additional thick iron plates and rods. In addition to enhancing its life, proper fencing was also erected all along the boundary of the green house for preventing dog’s entry into the enclosure. Finally the whole frame was properly painted before clothing it.

The College had a long-standing problem of noisy lawn mowers. These mowers were diesel based and created lot of noise while mowing creating disturbance in concentration of both teachers and students while in classes. Otherwise also these were creating both noise and air pollution in the surrounding environment. In addition to this, these machines also required regular repairing causing unnecessary financial load on the Garden exchequer. So, the garden committee took a decision to replace all of these mowers with the electric ones in a phased manner. Accordingly, Garden Committee purchased two electric lawn mowers (Feb 2020) of a very good quality (Makita, a Japanese company).

There were huge piles of debris and discarded waste material lying behind the wall of temple and adjacent to the nursery since many years. Here a part of land area was covered with wastes, making the land inaccessible to useful work. Garden Committee took action (February 2020) and with help of gardeners and Sulabh workers, the areas were cleaned and waste material about 5 to 6 trucks were collected and removed Out of college. Now this place is completely neat & clean and looks very beautiful and can be used for many other purposes.

Over the years some trees have died a natural death and many have overgrown and therefore need pruning. With the permission of the Principal madam, Garden Committee has identified and marked such trees. It has also photographed them as well. With all this information, a detailed report has been prepared by college administration (March 2020) to Ministry of Environment and Forests/concerned regulating agencies, Delhi, asking them for permission and taking appropriate action including removal of dead trees as well as pruning of overgrown trees.

Since eight years, Principals bungalow had remained unoccupied and largely neglected. So it developed a very shabby appearance. Garden Committee took up this matter last year and prepared a plan for the revival of bungalow’s garden. Today this garden is well managed and has shown the sign of revival. Now it has taken a good shape of a beautiful garden. Now a days, here a small area of land is also used for kitchen gardening based on the practices of organic farming.