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Journalism of Courage
Jadavpur University will conduct an audit of trees in the campus from August 7, after members of Jadavpur University Teachers’ Association (JUTA) alleged some trees are being chopped off inside the main campus by a group. A JUTA spokesman said on Tuesday informed that the vice-chancellor Suranajan Das and registrar Snehamanju Basu told the association members that the audit will begin from Wednesday (August 7) to create a data bank of greeneries inside the sprawling campus.
JUTA members had in the middle of July presented photos of two chopped off tree planks to the university authorities and they promised a survey of the plantations inside the campus will soon be undertaken to prevent any such incident, the spokesman said.
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“We have information that a section of employees are in collusion with a racket involved in chopping off trees. There had been instances of trees being cut and taken out of the campus surreptitiously in the past. The authorities promised to prevent any such incident when we presented them with the photographic evidence in the middle of July,” the spokesman said.
There are hundreds of trees inside the sprawling campus but there had never been any audit to arrive at the exact number, the member said.
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Vice-Chancellor Prof Suranjan Das refused to comment on the issue or the exercise. Another senior varsity official said, “the audit will begin from tomorrow by the university itself and it will continue till the exercise is complete.”
There are mahogany, mango, arjun, sirish, krishnachura and many other trees inside the 58 acres of land in the main campus of the institute, a member of Arts Faculty Students Union said.
“We welcome any such step. We will keep a vigil on the campus and extend any help for the audit drive,” AFSU general secretary Debraj Debnath said.
