COIMBATORE: Bharathiar University (BU) plans to recreate on its campus Kuyil Thoppu, a grove in Puducherry from where freedom fighter and fiery poet Subramania Bharathi penned his poems. The university has roped in Tree trust for the project.
Besides planting around 2000 saplings of native, rare and fruit bearing trees, the university will build a kudil (hut) with thinnai (pyol) and install a Bharathiar statue. Landscaping such as a pond and well that are mentioned by the poet in Kuyil Pattu will be done and the site will be promoted as a selfie spot to attract students and general public.
S Chitra, Dean, Faculty of Arts and Head, department of Tamil and Director Mahakavi Bharathiyar Advanced Research centre, told TNIE "I sought one Kaani Nilam (57,499 square feet approx), desired by Bharathiar, to build projects based on his literary works to mark his centenary. BU VC P Kaliraj allotted nearly three Kaani Nilam (2.73 lakh sq ft). Kuyil Thoppu will come up in a part of the land."
"Bharathiar, in his Kuyil Paattu, stated that Asian koel knows the language of humans and cows. He fought for the country's freedom by writing from a mango grove in Puducherry. There is no kuyil thoppu now, it is all a concrete jungle. Our goal is to sensitise people to Bharathiar's poetry. We have signed an MoU with Tree trust headed by M Yoganathan who has planted lakhs of saplings across the state. The trust will design the Kuyil Thoppu and maintain the trees for ten years," said Chitra
Yoganathan said "More savukku (Casuarina) trees will be planted surrounding Kuyil Thoppu that will act as fence and few rare and endemic varieties in Panai (palmyra palm) and Thiruvodu tree (Crescentia cujete -calabash) inside the Thoppu apart from fruit bearing trees such as mango, banana jackfruit. We welcome philanthropists to help us financially. We have set up drip irrigation lines after removing the Seemai Karuvelam and bushes for 80 cents which would be used for this project." S Shantha Kumar, coordinator of Tree trust said they will visit Puducherry to collect rare varieties of sapling.
Chitra added, "We will build a clock tower at the entrance and Bharathiar's poems would be played once every hour. We are also planning to offer a certificate course and two diploma courses on Bharathiar. For this, an administrative block will also be constructed. Moreover, a library containing Bharathiar's poetry and their translations will be built. The cost for these is estimated to be ₹25 crore."