Planting a tree will be part of the Delhi University curriculum from the upcoming academic session and the students will be the varsity’s “climate warriors”, acting vice-chancellor P.C. Joshi announced on Saturday.

This will be applicable at the undergraduate, postgraduate and M.Phil/PhD levels, DU officials said.

The programme will be scientifically monitored and evaluated by the respective colleges, centres and departments, they said.

“Planting millions of suitable trees and creating a natural ecosystem… can be achieved faster through massive student participation. Every year, DU admits lakhs of students from different parts of the country and they will be our climate warriors,” Joshi said.

Plants absorb many harmful pollutants, prevent soil erosion and landslides, said botanist and professor Dinabandhu Sahoo, Director of the Centre for Himalayan Studies and the brain behind the proposal.

“Today, we are facing a major biosphere crisis and there are only 28 trees per person available in India while the global average is 422 trees per person,” he said.

According to a DU notification, each student should plant at least one native tree species in their place of stay.

“The student should submit GPS coordinates… along with the picture of plant to the respective college /department/centre. The picture should have a placard containing details such as name of the tree, name and course of the student, location and date of plantation,” the notification said.

It said the student needs to take care of the tree through periodic monitoring.

“Six-monthly monitoring report and photograph with some description of growth need to be submitted by the student,” the notification said.