Written By Vijay Kumar

Class X, St. M. G. Public School
Patna, Bihar, India

Infused with excitement, we the students of class X of St. M. G. Public School [Patna, Bihar] had an eye opener excursion trip to Tarumitra, a Bioreserve and ecology centre.

The word Tarumitra consist of two words ‘Taru’ means Tree and mitra means ‘friend.’ There are more than 500 species of plants in Tarumitra; some are almost extinct from our state; Some rarely found anywhere; some of the plants possessed medicinal values. Tarumitra is an innovation to save our environment. Every construction in Tarumitra such as cottages, water tank, and even toilet are based on 3 R’s Principle – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

There are many cottages, and the names are based on seasons. The walls of the cottages are plasterd with mud. So, the temperature inside the cottages is always 6 to 7 degree celcius less than the temperature outside. The lighting arrangement is also based upon the motto of save energy. The glasses on the roof of the cottages are constructed in such a way that the sunlight coming to the room lights the room which saves the cost of light. There are also bio-toilet which are gifted to Tarumitra by Sweden which recycles the human excreta into manure which is recycled in the farming in Tarumitra. There are no water filter as the they get the pure water from the bore well which is 400 m deep. So the water is pure. Each and every electric apple once used are based on solar energy. There is a huge solar plant which supplies electricity to the whole Tarumitra.

In Tarumitra there is a treehouse called mother Tree. On the Tree house my friends and I climbed and enjoyed very much. The place was very quiet and we felt very calm there. There is also a fishery to breed fish. In our daily busy life we are going away from our Mother Nature. In Tarumitra we felt and experienced the nature very closely and intimately. They also provide the fasciitis of buying rare plants from their nursery and I bought a rainbow plant which is very colourful. I wish that we could visit Tarumitra more often.