The bright minds at the Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (IIT-GN) are not just bookworms; they are equally conscious of increasing awareness about global issues at the local level. Eighty-six environmentally conscious students who have been active as part of an in-house club of the institute, Green Gang, are planning to not only create awareness about non-conventional energy sources in areas surrounding the campus like Chandkheda and Motera, but are also working to make the institute’s new campus energy efficient through the use of these.
Talking about the formation of the Green Gang, Yogesh Goyal, a second-year student of chemical engineering in the institute’s BTech programme and president of the club, said, “We are a group of like-minded students, willing to contribute to the protection of our environment. We are conducting in-house activities like picking up the litter on the campus and keeping it clean. We have undertaken a survey to check the awareness on related issues among the residents of the surrounding areas like Chandkheda and Motera.”
The survey of around 800 people has shown that they are interested in using non-conventional energy sources, but have limited information on the same. “So, we are planning to work towards increasing their awareness through events like quizzes for schoolchildren from the surrounding areas,” Goyal said.
Goyal and his committee are planning to make the new campus of IIT-GN energy efficient. “We recently had a teleconference with the California Institute of Technology in the US. The institute’s campus uses non-conventional sources of energy through solar panels, bio-diesel etc. Taking a cue from them, we are exploring the possibilities of making our new campus eco-friendly in the future,” he said.
About the activities of the Green Gang, Urjit Yajnik, dean of student affairs at the institute, said, “The Green Gang is conducting good activities on and outside the campus, to create awareness about environmental issues and non-conventional energy sources. They have conducted a survey on this and are planning to do something practical in this direction.”
