The Nilgiri Documentation Centre (NDC) has appealed to the Government Arts College in Udhagamandalam to establish a centre for mountain studies in the Nilgiris.
“The call to establish the centre as part of the Ooty Bicentenary celebrations has been gaining support from all stakeholders. The idea was mooted in the recent meeting of the past and present students and teachers of the nearly 70-year-old college to celebrate the 200th year of the building of the Stone House, where the college is housed,” said Venugopal Dharmalingam, honorary director of the NDC in a release.
Among the participants in the meeting were eminent past pupils including H. Devaraj, ex UGC Vice-Chairman, Justice Sathish Kumar, Judge of the Madras High Court, D.P. Devaraj, former ACCF of Puducherry, H. Bojaraj, ex-Group Director of ISRO, Emeritus professors K.V. Jayakumar and M.J. Nanjan, Prof. K. Subbiah, convener of the meeting and M. Easwaramurthy, principal of the college, who has been given additional charge of Director of Collegiate Education, the release added.
Welcoming the proposal, Mr. Dharmalingam said the idea was topical and critical to the district. “The United Nations has declared this year as the Year of Sustainable Mountain Development. The Nilgiris is ideally situated for such a centre which can focus on both the Western and Eastern Ghats, besides the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve. Issues like climate change, landslides, man-animal conflict and mountain tourism have already started to impact on the mountain ecosystem and it requires scientific studies and research to find sustainable solutions to them,” Mr. Venugopal said.
