IIT Roorkee houses 57 species of birds, 140 species of trees and 91 varieties of herbs as it records campus biodiversity

(Image: IIT Roorkee Website)

Beyond engineers and technocrats, the Indian Institute of Roorkee (IIT Roorkee) has now found that it is home to 57 species of birds, 140 varieties of trees and 91 species of herbs among others in its rich biodiversity.

From oriental garden lizard to Brook’s house gecko, from coppersmith barbet to jungle babblers, from elephant apples to tall sals, from blue Jacranda to three edged rudraksh, the IIT campus has it all. A wide variety of butterflies, at least 11 species of amphibians and reptiles roam around the Roorkee campus.

The metallic calls of the Coppersmith Barbet, the cacophony of the jungle babblers, the songs of the oriental magpie robin, and the incessant calls of the common hawk-cuckoo – the inventory of birds of the campus resulted in a total of 57 species that included insectivorous, frugivorous, nectarivorous, and diurnal and nocturnal birds of prey.

The legacy tech school has undertaken a study along with state-run Wildlife Institute of India to record its biodiversity and discovered how it houses a rich biodiversity.

“The flora of IIT Roorkee is a melting pot of species from different geographic regions of India as well as other parts of the world. The five-month floristic survey revealed a diverse assemblage of plants belonging to trees, shrubs, herbs as well as woody and herbaceous climbers. A total of 304 species belonging to 237 genera and 87 different plant families were recorded within the campus,” the IIT said.

The exercise lead to an “important discovery” of Typhonium inopinatum, a herbaceous plant belonging to the family Araceae. This is Typhonium inopinatum the first record for the state of Uttarakhand, the IIT said.

Among the floral types, trees were the most dominant with 140 species, followed by 91 species of herbs, 45 species of shrubs, and 28 species of climbing plants. Further, the floristic diversity on the campus is dominated by exotics, and most of which are ornamental species.

Spread over 365 acres and seated in the midst of a rapidly growing Roorkee city, the IIT Roorkee campus is found to support a diverse variety of flora and fauna, said Dhananjai Mohan director of Wildlife Institute of India.