The Government College University Lahore Thursday launched the “10,000 Trees Plantation Drive” to restore the traditional green look of the university’s main campus and beautify the landscapes of new 370 acres land allocated for the new campus at Kalal Shah Kaku. Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah and senior faculty members inaugurated the plantation drive for which the university’s six societies have teamed up with the Punjab Forest Department.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony, Dr Zaheer-ud-Din Khan, Professor of Biodiversity, said that more than 1,500 members and officer-bearers of the University’s Horticulture Society, Environment Protection Society, Rovers Club, Biological Society, Library Society and Hiking and Mountaineering Club were participating in the mass on-campus plantation drive. He said on the request of Vice Chancellor, the Punjab Forest Department had provided 10,000 saplings free-of-cost to GCU.
He said these 15,00 volunteers and 400 faculty members would not only plant these saplings, but would also act as Prefects and help and supervise the university’s gardeners for the protection of these trees. Dr Khan revealed that 3,000 saplings were being planted on the university’s Main Clock Tower Campus while 7,000 saplings would be planted at the Kala Shah Kaku Campus where a team of gardeners would be deputed for their protection and supervision.
Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor Prof Shah said that GCU was located right in the heart of the City, so it needed to a good green environment on the campus to protect its students from noise and other environmental pollutions, and to provide them a healthy environment fit for the innovate and intellectual thinking. He pledged that they would also take every possible step for the preservation of these saplings being planted during the campaign.
Punjab Forest Department (PFD) Conservation Officer and Old Ravian Ajmal Raheem said that GCU had given the forest department several great environmentalists and botanists and it was just trying to pay back the debt. Earlier, GCU Director Research Prof Dr Ikram-ul-Haq, Director Sports Khadim Ali Khan, Botany Department Chairperson Dr Ghazala Yasmeen Butt and other heads of departments also planted saplings to inaugurate the plantation drive.