From cocoon to campus couture: How students of Thrissur Vimala College have woven a silk dream

From growing mulberry plants and rearing silkworms to harvesting cocoons — and eventually weaving silk sarees — students of the Zoology Department at Vimala College in Thrissur, Keralam, are spinning an unusual entrepreneurial dream.

The students have launched ‘V-Weave’, a sericulture campus start-up that aims to take them through the fascinating journey from the farm to the loom.

The initiative, launched by the Zoology Department, has already marked a major milestone with its first silk cocoon harvest. Students have been cultivating mulberry and rearing silkworms at the college’s off-campus facility at Padukkad, producing silk cocoons and opening what the college describes as a new chapter in campus-based entrepreneurship.

With the initiative, Vimala College has also earned the distinction of becoming the first college campus in the State to undertake silkworm rearing and silk cocoon production, according to Prof Feeba Rani John, Head of the Department of Zoology.