The short certificate course aims to promote environment conservation and knowledge. Sanchayan Bhattacharjee reports
While there are a number of advantages of living in a city, proximity to nature isn’t one of them. In the hustle and bustle of daily routines within the city’s dense infrastructure, few can find the opportunity or afford the luxury to appreciate nature. However, nature enthusiasts still find time to attend nature walks, seminars etc., not just to indulge their interests, but also to gain knowledge.
In order to further help this cause, the Foundation for Educational Rendezvous with Nature (FERN) is conducting ‘Field Botany & Beyond', a certificate course in Botany at Thane. Starting March 16, the course demands no prerequisite knowledge of botany, and people from different age groups, from students to senior citizens can opt for it. “The common factor is a curiosity and love for the environment in general. In addition to an academic advantage to students, it will introduce senior citizens to various means of conservation,” says Seema Hardikar, co-founder, FERN. She further adds that many people who attend nature walks manage to learn the names of a few trees but generally do not find any medium to further their knowledge beyond that point.
In the short 12-week course, lectures will be conducted twice a week as well as field visits in different locations conducted by 25 field experts, professionals and academicians in fields related to Botany. In addition to conventional field botany, topics like evolutionary history and diversity of plants, morphology, nomenclature and classification, habitats, plant interactions, the course will also look towards conservation. “Lectures will focus on Conservation of Crop Genetic Resources for Sustainable Agriculture, Environmental Impact Assessment, Afforestation, Environmental Law, Environmental Journalism etc. Also, the faculty strength will create a responsible group of participants and 25 experts who will directly or indirectly work towards conservation,” adds Hardikar.
Participants will be assigned group projects like survey of tree species in their locality, number of species under particular family found at a certain location, plant communities found in a particular habitat like lake, garden, forest patch etc., based on which they will be assessed.
Since every government and private endeavour today gives importance to the environment, a certain amount of knowledge in the domain will certainly be useful. “In addition, for all students and professionals from related fields, the certificate will be an attestation of their knowledge and field expertise,” signs off Hardikar.
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