A fruitful reconnaissance at Bellary-I

Ms.Mujeeba, Mr. S.J Srinivasa and Mr. Santosh Martin

Our association with the Regional Museum of Natural History at Mysore is long standing and our ventures are steadily adding feathers to each other’s caps. As part of their Annual Workshop for Teachers they were planning to go to Northern part of Karnataka. It needs a good camp site accessible to the teachers and cooperative officers in the Education and Forest Department for a successful workshop. Daroji Slot bear sanctuary seemed to be an obvious choice as I have been visiting the place for nearly a decade and conducted many programs for students and teachers as well. Every officer of this sanctuary had considered us as we had actively supported them in their campaign against ritual hunting and educational programs.

Stone age tool from the campsite!

 

 Mrs. Mujeeba Khanum, of the Education division and S J Srinivasa artist and modeler at the Museum and Manu K travelled to Bellary to fix up a workshop for Life Science Teachers of that region. Meeting the Deputy Director of Public Instruction at the district head quarter and the Block education Officer at Hospet and the Camp site at Kamalapura really had some rough riding in the country side. In between the schedules the team managed to peep into some local schools and interact with the children.

Ever enthusiastic kids of Genesis School

Active participant

While Genesis school at Bellary was a brain child of Santosh Martin, former Wildlife warden of Bellary, Kasturabha School at Kamalapura was a residential school for the drop outs run by the state govt. At the genesis primary school there were about a hundred children, all of them bubbling with enthusiasm. No body needing any prompting to speak.  In fact they were all over loaded with information about Nature!

Photography 

Ms. Mujeeba addressing Kasturba School students 

At the Kasturaba School the slightly senior children were eager to learn but quite shy to ask questions. The girls were all from diverse backgrounds. The teachers had done their best to keep them cheerful and confident. Manu and Mujeeba spoke to the children and narrated stories while Srinivasa showed them to craft paper into masks.

S J with his magical tiger