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Patna,(BiharTimes): Hundreds of students of St Xavier’s College joined a festival of Bio-diversity at Tarumitra Bio-reserve on Saturday morning. The Principal Fr.(Dr) Francis Parmar distributed rare saplings like Sita Ashoka, Patli, Kachnar among the students and planted the famed Laxmi Taru in the Bioreserve.

The students organized bouts of earth-dancing on the occasion.

Margaret Molomoo from Darjeeling welcomed the students and explained the purpose of the meeting as the raising of the awareness of the rich bio-diversity of the State.

It may be mentioned that United Nations has declared 2010 as the year of Biodersity. The Principal Fr. Parmar said that St. Xavier’s college would like to bring in eco-friendliness both in their academics and way of life.

The students attended a lecture by environmentalist Father Robert Athickal on biodiversity. He cited the examples of mosquitos and snakes for their positive role in the upkeep of the web of life. He said that mosquitoes in their natural way “vaccinate” the humans with small doses of diseases and their bodies slowly learn to raise the levels of immunity and finally become impervious to those diseases.

“Were not for the mosquitoes the human beings would have died long time back!” he said. He explained that each bite from a mosquito makes the human beings stronger in the long run. Even deadly diseases like Malaria, Dengue and Chikungunea eventually raise the immunity levels of the human body.

He also talked on the importance of conserving snakes. “Of the 233 varieties of reptiles in India, just four of them only are poisonous, Cobra, Krait, Russell’s viper and Pit viper” he said. These poisonous snakes are far in between. Most of the snakes have disappeared from Bihar and this has led to the abundance of rats in the rural areas. “Each of us are a thousand times poisonous than a snake. Why should we be then afraid of snakes?” he asked.

The planting of Laxmi Taru was assisted by a group consisting of the youngest students, the senior most teacher and Fr.(Dr) Nishant. Fr. Nishant threw light on the relevance of the plant since every part of the tree was known to be useful for human life.

Also present on the occasion were the vice Principal Fr. Nishant, Fr. Jose Kalapurackal, Sr. Carmen, members of the staff, Chiranjeev, Rajesh and D.N Prasad.

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