 "103rd Indian Science Congress in Mysuru is a 'natural' affair")
The 103rd Indian Science Congress is being hosted at the postgraduate campus of the University of Mysuru, which is nestled within a 739-acre region called Manasagangotri. Welcoming the 12,000 odd registered attendees (many of whom are students) is the prospects of scientific discussion, a diverse set of flora and fauna, and spotty mobile connectivity.
Flanked by the Kukkarahalli Lake that is home to a variety of migratory bird species for a few weeks every year, there’s a conscious effort to restrict installation of cell towers within the University of Mysuru campus, which have been found to deter birds from nesting in the area. The result of this lack of towers as you might imagine is patchy mobile and internet connectivity at best.
It’s the mother of all ironies that the Indian Science Congress Association had to pick a spot that’s backward in terms of technology use to host the 103rd Indian Science Congress, but it is also a lesson in restraint and respect for nature. It is great that the attendees will notice this every time they pull their smartphones or cellphones out of their pockets.
Scientific research comes with a great responsibility - Albert Einstein’s theories helped in the creation of the atom bomb, a technological marvel the world could have done without. With indigenisation of science and technology research being the flavour of this year’s Congress, one can only hope all the attendees don’t just take back the science, but also the sense of maturity and responsibility exercised by the university.
Celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2016, the University of Mysuru has a colourful history of producing some of the greatest Indian minds over the years. Bharat Ratnas M Visvesvaraya, C N R Rao and Dr. S Radhakrishnan are its products. It’s somehow fitting that the next generation of scientists and thinkers coming from the institute will have a respect for nature embedded into them.
K M Jayaramaiah, an ex-professor at the university, is still active in efforts to conserve the Kukkarahalli lake and the diverse ecosystem of migratory birds it supports. It is not just the lake that needs to be kept clean he says, but food sources need to preserved for the birds to flock to the area in the first place.
The Mysuru university campus houses over 2,000 fruit trees, serving as food sources for the birds, while they along with the thousands of other trees also serve as nesting spots for various species. Professor Jayaramaiah says it wasn’t always this way though, with the lake becoming so polluted in the past that there were actually talks to shut it down in 2001. Today, Kukkarahalli hosts 180 species of birds making is among the most important bird areas in Karnataka.
As an increasingly large amount of scientific research is being steered today towards finding ways of conserving nature, the story of foregoing cell connectivity to preserve nature at the 103rd Indian Science Congress could be a great lesson in sustainable development.