It was like a virtual visit to Sriharikota, the satellite launch centre of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The flora and fauna including butterflies, mammals and wildlife, forests, ecological habitats, land, sand dunes, natural and manmade vegetation, mangroves, river, canal and beach, fruits, flowers, and rural entrepreneurship of the 185 square km barrier island off the Bay of Bengal coast located in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh came live at Birsa Agricultural University (BAU) here on December 15.
Occasion was presentation of a lecture on ‘Horticulture, forests, wildlife and biodiversity conservation in Sriharikota’ by Retired Associate Project Director and Head, Environment Forest and Horticulture Division, ISRO, Angadi Rabbani. Almost everybody present in the audience had heard about Sriharikota and viewed the TV visuals of satellite launching from this centre but it was a thrilling experience of viewing and hearing about the nature, life and minute details of the island. Visuals of different buildings with attractive landscape of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, one of the two satellite launch centres of India were also shown.
Rabbani said that every new building plan is cleared by the Environment Clearance Committee of Sriharikota and if even a single tree comes into way requiring cutting, the site of the building is shifted to another place. Even a single tree s not allowed cutting for any developmental project there. Solar energy is used in all the 52 buildings and wood gas fire is used at canteens. Solid waste management is very effective for creation of wealth from waste. Entire ISRO campus is plastic free and any plastic bottle of polythene is not allowed there. The entire 52 km stretch of beach always remains neat and clean because beach cleaning by collecting plastic bottles and other garbage coming through the sea is undertaken at regular intervals. Lakhs of plants are grown into nursery and afforestation programmes are taken up with indigenous plants only.
BAU Vice Chancellor, Onkar Nath Singh said working at ISRO centre was very hard for Rabbani but with his dedicated efforts he made his presence felt to everybody working at and visiting Sriharikota.
Director Research A Wadood said that global warming and climate change is the most burgeoning problem across the globe due to the addition of tonnes of greenhouse gases and other pollutants into the atmosphere. Some of the experiments of Sriharikota may be replicated at BAU also for biodiversity documentation and conservation.
Dean, Faculty of Agriculture, MS Yadav, Principal Investigator, NAHEP-CAAST, MS Malik, Prof BK Agarwal and Arvind Kumar also spoke on the occasion.
The lecture was organized by the Centre for Advanced Agricultural Science & Technology (CAAST) sanctioned to BAU under the National Agricultural Higher Education Project (NAHEP), a World Bank-aided project launched by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi.
After obtaining Ph D degree in Horticulture from Narendra Deva University of Agriculture and Technology, Ayodhya, Angadi Rabbani served at Sriharikota for 32 years. With specialization in remote sensing, horticulture and landscaping, he received the Best Landscape Planner Award thrice from the Governor of Gujarat.
