Digital Garden

Welcome to the Digital Garden of Government College Kariavattom

The 15 acres land area of Government College, Kariavattom comprising of about 200 species of diverse flora has now turned digital. The digital garden concept can help educate people about the importance of plants and trees, and inventing the campus’s floral diversity.

The lush greenery in the premises of the Administrative block, Naalukettu block, A, B and F blocks were identified with the help of Dr. Nisha SA and Gopika V Krishnan, Faculty, Department of Botany. The idea of Digital garden was conceptualised by the vision of the Principal, Prof. Dr. Sandhia GS, and the implementation was undertaken by Dr. Jairani PS, Head of the department, Biotechnology. The Webpage Creation and URL assignment were executed by Dr.Sreela SR, Assistant professor, Department of Computer Science.

QR code generation and linking was done by Biotechnology Department alumnus Dr. Akhilesh SV Nair, who had created India’s first digital garden at the University of Kerala.  Along with the plants in the campus, the team has successfully digitalized the medicinal Garden at the Campus, and the work has been extended to the Participatory village Pullampara.

The digital garden concept uses QR codes to create a digital representation of a campus’s plants and trees

  • QR code creation: A specific URL is used to create a QR code for each plant species.
  • QR code placement: The QR code is attached to the plant label.
  • QR code scanning: When a QR code is scanned with a mobile phone’s QR code scanner, the URL is translated and opens a website with information about the plant.
  • Website creation: A website is created to document and digitize the plant data.

The campus flora that consists of various trees, shrubs and creepers has been documented and each has been assigned a QR code. Visitors can scan these and easily access information about each species. Some of the trees and plants on the campus include Bauhinia variegata L (Mandharam), Tectona grandis L.f. (Teak), Mahogony (Swietenia mahagoni (L.) Jacq., Pterocarpus santalinus L.f.  (Red sandalwood tree), Noni (Morinda citrifolia L) and Saraca asoca (Roxb.) W.J.de Wilde (Asoka tree).

By digitizing the information of the plants in the Government College Kariavattom, visitors can learn more about our biological diversity. Any person who is interested in Plants can assess the website freely http://govtcollegekariavattom.ac.in/?page_id=25987.