New Delhi: To mark the World Environment Day, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has launched the "Green IGNOU" project to make the campus green.

The rocky terrains, slopes, barren patches in the vast campus of the university will metamorphose into green foliage with avenue trees stooping over creating vegetation cover.

"We are looking at massive plantation of trees, avenue trees, extensive horticulture and others within the campus. 80% of the area of the university will be turned green in a two-year project. As of now, 20% of the area of the university campus is built up," said Professor V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, Vice Chancellor IGNOU.

The university was discussing the campus environmental issues for quite some times. It was facing some insurmountable problems especially in areas of water harvesting.

According to Prof Shailendra Kumar Yadav, a reader in the School of Agriculture of IGNOU, the efforts were abortive in most cases as the slopes are much too many to accommodate surface for water harvesting.

"Even after boring as deep as 500 feet we get very small amount of water. Only rocky contents are found. Even the rocks are found to be fragile up to deep level. With such soil condition, injection of water into the aquifer is not possible. In fact, best water harvesting is possible when you have a catchment area nearby" .

The university will undertake massive plantation drive, landscaping and development of avenue trees for dense foliage all over.

"We will also take consultancy from Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF), Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), particularly from its Horticulture department, and others as and when necessary," further said Prof. Yadav.