The 'wild' side of campuses

What would you see at an IT company or a B-school campus? Well-designed buildings, latest versions of computers in every cubicle and young minds working hard or lounging with their peers.

But how about feasting your eyes on deer, peacocks, Australian birds and tortoises in the vicinity, besides all the technical gizmos? Call it a reflection of environment-friendliness or an attempt to make work/study area pleasant, a few campuses in Hyderabad today do boast of this kind of environment.

Satyam Computer Services Limited's Technology Centre in Hyderabad, for instance, is one campus where a good portion of the 120 acres of land has been left undeveloped for nature's abundance.

Set up with an objective of blending nature with technology, the campus today is home to 31 chital (spotted deer), 24 tortoises and around 300 birds besides 12 peacocks and more than a dozen rabbits.

According to Murali V, senior vice-president, corporate services at Satyam, the company has received all the necessary regulations from the zoo authorities for this purpose.

"We source the wildlife from the central zoo authority and since the last few years this is being done on an exchange basis. Our veterinary doctor also advises us on what kind of wildlife will get acclimatised in this environment," he adds.

"In the vicinity of the peacocks, we also have a wi-fi zone where people can sit and work on their laptops in pleasant surroundings. Sometimes, we also hold our informal meetings and brainstorming sessions here," Murali adds.

According to Murali, this kind of environment helps increase the productivity of the employees who visit the area during lunch hours to relax their minds. Incidentally, the fan-tailed doves that the centre has, was given voluntarily by the central zoo authority to Satyam.

"The customs authority had stopped these birds from being smuggled and thereafter the zoo authority gave the birds to us for maintenance," Murali says.

A similar kind of nature-friendliness can also be seen at the Indian School of Business (ISB). Anybody visiting the campus would have noticed the 'Peacock crossing' boards on the side of the roads.

"This is to caution the drivers to maintain the speed limit of 30 km/hr, not just for the peacocks that might be crossing the road but also for their own safety," Bhuvana Ramalingam, director (communications), ISB, says.

Besides peacocks, there are also peahens, snakes and migratory birds that live on the campus. Incidentally, all the wildlife that can be spotted on the campus existed at the place even before ISB was born.

Tata Consultancy Services' (TCS) software unit, Deccanpark, is also home to Australian and Indian ducks, turkeys and ginny fowls.

"Such an environment not only helps the associates to relax but also provides us other benefits. For instance, we have seen that because of the construction work going around in this area, the tremors underground force the snakes to come out. These can be potentially dangerous too. But the noises of ducks and fowls drive the snakes away," Nambiar says, adding that the existence of wildlife on campus is appreciated by clients and other people visiting the campus.