New geology department at Govt Arts College inaugurated

Coimbatore: After 10 years of efforts, the Government Arts College in the city has got a geology department.

While a proposal for starting the department at the college was sent to the state a decade before, due to various reasons it had got delayed, sources said.

This year, the state has sanctioned the department and the college inaugurated its BSc Geology programme on Tuesday.

Faculty members at the college said this was the first time a college affiliated to the Bharathiar University has got the course.

While the Government Arts College, Salem, had got the course in 1963, it was high time that Coimbatore, for the education hub that it is, got the course, said V Thirukumaran, associate professor of geology at the Salem college, who spoke at the inaugural session.

He said several self-financing colleges in the state have created the situation that only affluent people could afford to study geology and government colleges would take the field of study to all.

Faculty members said the department would be relevant to the region as it would involve studying groundwater tables, landslides and soil quality, issues which are being increasingly discussed about.

D Yuvaraj, head in-charge of the newly inaugurated geology department, said the relevance of the field cannot be overstated as geologists would study and analyse groundwater recharge techniques. They would also study the nature and extent to which groundwater has been polluted by medical and urban wastes.

“To mete out the water crisis in the country today, we must develop earth sciences,” he said.

The field would also involve studying the causes of landslides, which frequently happen in hill stations neighbouring the city, he said. “Till now there has not been an institution in the city from where experts have gone to study landslides in these areas. Now from our department, we can go and study them,” he said.

The sanctioned strength for the course was 24 for which 19 students have been admitted and five more were ready to join, said Yuvaraj. While the college would tentatively follow the geology syllabus of Government Arts College, Salem, they would form a special board of studies and frame their own syllabus for the next batch of students, he said. They would also set up a laboratory for the department within next year, he added.

He said they have prepared a proposal for starting MSc, MPhil and PhD courses in geology next year and they were also looking to set up a centre to offer counselling on geological and soil parameters for farmers and public.


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