Chinnara Vanya Darshana - II

Kids in the course of Souparnika river

Educating Indian mass has always been a great challenge, especially with topics like Environment, Nature and wildlife. These subjects have always been treated as lavish pastime for the haves in this country. Even now an average commoner thinks that life sciences are for those who have no worries of livelihood or of those who was not eligible for other lucrative courses. Initially it used to be the medicine and engineering that sucked in all the youth but now the Commerce and Management subjects have been the most sought after branches. Incidentally even apart from these subjects every stream of education has only promoted the masses into a consumer of a higher order; more resilient than the previous generation.  That is what is dangerous to Nature.

Card game in progress

 Our population has quadrupled over the past six decades and the natural resources of the country are reeling with the all sorts of abuse. Every form of extraction of every type of resource has reached unsustainable proportions. Mining of minerals and coal, quarrying for rocks and sand, cutting of wood and fishing for consumption have all reached unbelievable heights. Consequently the catches have fallen so steeply that many of the industries are already showing signs of collapsing beyond recovery.

Discussion

 Fisheries in the coastal regions are no longer fetching a decent living.  As a testimony of falling catches in the sea, hundreds of small boats lay stranded along the shores in Udapi District. Youth drawn from various corners of South India who work on these boats engage in playing cards in anticipation of the day they set sailing.  Old men with receding hope sit mending the nets. Large trawlers bring ashore fish from deep sea that is grabbed by traders who cold store it and transport it over long distance.

The children without script

When you come across such naked truths about situations of our resource base what could I speak to the children? Less than sixty kilometers away you have children living in the villages hidden the tropical evergreen forests of Mukambika Forest range. Expecting even the high school students to have visited the sea shore is asking for heaven. But there isn't any wrong in expecting them to know some inhabitants in their forests. As a prelude to the workshop I involved the children in a game in which the children had to crack a puzzle and find out what animal he was. Every body had to pick up a card which had a written clues inn it. A few had simple graphical representation of a wild animal without any label. The idea was to make the students decipher the animal by identifying the limb or tail. Though it was clearly mentioned that all the animals and birds included in the game were chosen from the forests adjoining to them, the children were largely gullible. They were asked to consult with their friends and fall in different groups based on the animals they represented. And finally it was the lesson time and every body had to individually read out their clue and justify why they thought they belonged to that group. The anchor or the teacher would have ample scope to throw light on the subject. This activity has always given a wonderful experience to me and has been well received by every group I have handled-teachers, students, foresters and so on. To my surprise in this remote corner of Karnataka I had a strange experience. My graphical representation of the Lion tailed macaque was identified as a Gorilla by a ninth grade student. I asked him to hold the card up so that the others in the class could have a look and assist him in identifying the animal. The thorough silence for a while made me have a second look at the lion tailed macaque I had drawn.  I asserted them two things- there couldn't be a Gorilla in these forests and they exist only in the forests of Central Africa. The boy immediately called out ‘it is a King-kong’. Their teachers who accompanied these children were also blank. It didn't take any long for me to realize the sorry state of these students. Like me the forest officials also had a blow not once but twice. The question of how could someone who doesn't have access to a library or television programs be inducted with a fictitious animal like king kong? That must have simply been the height of influence of Electronic media.

Group discussion

I further involved the students in more activities and tried to figure out about their future plans. Most of the boys never knew any script. Their mother tongue was Malayalam but was studying in Kannada Medium School run by the temple trust. Some wrote a mix of two South Indian Languages. As in the case of any other teen at school in this country none of them wanted to take up farming or fishing for a living. Their ambitions were simple and realistic. Reach up the tenth grade and get into driving a cab, truck or a JCB. In fact they were all children of migrant labors or small land holders pursuing rubber plantations. Their prime aim, one generation earlier was to push into the forest land as much as possible and even hunt or trap what ever was possible.  Now there is free education and stricter forest vigilance. There is ensured food and an absurd dose of education that would not sink in their life. But they were all street smart. They could relate to every environmental phenomenon in their text books-formation of rain, causes for soil erosion and the kind. Their awareness in policies and politics were also sound. When asked about what Kasturi Rangan Report meant for them they answered in unison- evacuation of poor farmers, introducing wild tigers in the region……we don’t know any thing beyond that!

Melastoma malabaricum

  Exposing children in the fringe area is the need of the hour but several questions arise with regards to how it could be taken forward across the state. Karnataka is so diverse in its habitat and the wildlife they contain. It would ask special expertise to relate the class room syllabus to the local habitat and the precious wildlife they contain.

RFO Lohith and his team in action

- Manu K

Chinnara Vanya Darshana; needs an educational tilt

The course of Souparnika river

Watching a Calotis

It is examination time for the teenagers. The examinations of the tenth class of the State Board are a ceremonial event throughout the country. Pictures of bright eyed girls engrossed in last minute preparations appear in the News papers. Needless to be said, there is an ‘exclusive’ about mall-practice in the examination hall being reported from here and there.  In less than a fortnight children are relieved of their examination fervor and get back to their joyful mood. In about a month and a half’s time the results are out and the analysis of the best learned and the worst are listed in terms of the districts. You see it as long standing phenomenon of a few resource-rich forested districts along the sea coast to top the list and those from the dry interiors remaining at the bottom. These board performances incidentally reflect the actual literacy of these districts and in turn the well being of the people.

kids visiting a nursery

The educational status among students across the districts is so varied in terms of their academic performances but when it comes to the knowledge about flora and fauna the state wide survey shows a bleak picture. Be it the best performing districts like Uttara Kannada, Dakshina Kannada and Udapi or the non performing Bijapura or Chamarajanagara; children are thoroughly disconnected from their surrounding environment.

A tree frog

Working for a whole month and a half with the staff of Karnataka Forest Department  of Karkala Division of the Mangalore Circle, I encountered some life time revelations. ‘Chinnara Aranya Darshana’ as the program was called, gave me an opportunity to take pulse of the communities that lived right inside the protected areas and largely of those who lived in the fringes. Every night was a treat for me to stay in the remotest of corners in the forest guest houses, at times without electric power and communication signal. 

An arthropod

 The program being envisaged by the state government in Mangalore circle could be a pilot project which must ball roll into the entire state.  Every Range forest Office had to conduct an Exposure program for the students of the schools adjoining their range. The offices were left with a very broad agenda and included visit to National park and sanctuaries where ever possible. Those ranges away from wildlife areas and the territorial wing of the department showcased their nurseries, wood stock in the depots, ceased vehicles and timber, Medicinal gardens, plantation areas, water harvesting structures and other civil works undertaken by the department to mitigate soil erosion. The involvement of the office staff was also not defined in the project yet some of the ranges conducted the program in a befitting way.

A frog-seen in the night!

 A couple of officers simply emphasized upon the play time of the children. With a sympathetic gesture towards the under privileged students they were bent on letting them play in the swing and other installations in the play area. Some programs had ‘anthyakshari’ and skits- I heard from the cooks at the campsites.

At the entrance of Mukambika Daivi vana -Medicinal plant Garden, the sight of the entire contingent clad in khaki created a different aura. Form a distance it gave a picture of a crime scene or a place under intense alertness. The Range Forest Officer Mr. Brijesh Vinay Kumar, of Satyanarayana range conducted the program in style of the forces. The uniformed man stood in almost one is to four ratios with the children. His huge built, soft tone and dutiful command and conduct wouldn’t have missed the admiration of the young minds. Probably this was how he envisaged the project and showcased the children, all the dignity and discipline that were in store while being in the uniform. He had a very confident gait as his men took the children around the sea of saplings neatly stacked in the nursery.  He, with his able team of foresters and watchers playing host to the government school children at Mukambika Medicinal garden in is just unforgettable event.

Good science teachers..

The young RFO from Byandur chose to take the children to a near by resort to show the benefits of having trees. The Wild Woods Spa and resort whose mission statement is Connect with Nature, provides an exclusive escape in its hundred acre botanical delight.The children were mesmerized by the intensive collection of plants and their novelty value among those who cared for it. 

kids in front of the wild wood resort

- Manu K