Activity Update March 2016: Pench Madhya Pradesh

Highlights:

Dewari - Young volunteers build waterhole in programme
organised by us

Dewri - Waterhole for birds made by our volunteers

Khamba - Niranjan explains how to celebrate eco-friendly
Holi using natural colors made from palash flowers

Kundai - Our field assistant Kamlesh Pawar speaks about
water conservation to students of village school

Khamba - Village children spot birds on a nature trail

Telia - Our field assistant Niranjan demonstrates benefits
of improved chullah (stove) which uses less firewood

Telia - Volunteer Prameek Kannan and field assistant
Niranjan Hinge with students on a nature trail.

Turia - Check dam built by our volunteers as part of
our water conservation programme

Turia - Volunteers build check dam

Turia - Volunteers fill bags with sand to use in building check dam

Tuyepani - Students on conservation rally
as part of World Wildlife Day celebrations

Tuyepani - SF's Anoop Awasthi interacting with
SDO Mr B P Tiwari  and RFO Mr Jatav during a BCRLIP meeting

THE FULL REPORT:

Team: Anoop Awasthi – Assistant Director

            Niranjan Hinge, Kamlesh Pawar – Field Assistants

 

Highlights

·      Organized programme to build a check dam near Turia

·      Organized programme to prepare a waterhole for birds at Dewri

·      Celebrated World Wildlife Day, World Forestry Day, World Water Day and eco-friendly Holi at Tuyepani, Kundai, Turia, Teliya, Khamba and Satosha

·      Organized programme to clean a well at Turia

·      Organized demos on smokeless chullah at Teliya and Jamuntola

·      Installed water containers for birds in Turia and Satosha

·      8 nature trails for school children – attended by 80  students

·      21 environmental education programmes - addressed  592  school children about nature’s values and environmental issues

·      Organized 6 medical camps - 128 patients treated

Conservation

On March 28, Kamlesh Pawar organized a voluntary work  programme to construct a waterhole for birds in Dewri village. 10 school children participated in the voluntary programme. The waterhole was created within the school premises by digging a trench to collect spill over water from the hand pump.

On March 3, Kamlesh Pawar organized an awareness rally to celebrate World Wildlife Day in Tuyepani village. Kamlesh encouraged 60 students and their teachers of Government Middle School, Tuyepani to participate in the rally to create awareness amongst the villagers to protect and conserve wildlife.

During the rally, students chanted slogans like “Bag hai to jungle hai. Jungle hai to jal hai. Jal hai toh jeevan hai. Jeevan hai toh hum hai!” (Forests exist because of Tigers. We get water because of forests. Life exists because of water. We exist because there is life!). Kamlesh explained the importance of wildlife and its conservation for human existence to the students.

On the same day, Niranjan Hinge encouraged 5 villagers of Turia village to volunteer in a program to construct a check dam in Khamba nallah in buffer area of Pench Tiger Reserve, 3 kilometres away from the village. The check dam will provide water to wild life which is regularly spotted nearby like tiger, leopard, dhole, jackal, spotted deer, sambar deer and numerous birds during the summer season and thus help in wildlife conservation.

On March 21, Niranjan Hinge organized a drawing and essay competition in Government Middle School, Teliya to celebrate World Forestry Day. 24 students participated in the competition and expressed their views in vivid colours and words on various issues pertaining to wildlife conservation and ways to protect forests.

On the same day, Kamlesh Pawar organized an awareness rally in which 50 students of Government Middle school, Kundai participated to create awareness for conservation of forests and raised slogans to stop deforestation.

On March 22, Niranjan Hinge organized a classroom lecture for 45 students of Government Middle School, Teliya along with Anoop and volunteer Prameek Kannan to celebrate World Water Day.

During the lecture, Anoop Awasthi and Prameek Kannan informed students about various issues like water pollution and wastage and later emphasised on importance of water conservation.

A nature trail was also organized for 17 students as part of the celebrations. Students learnt about the rich biodiversity of Pench Tiger Reserve from Prameek, Anoop and Niranjan. They were able to spot and identify many birds like purple-rumped sunbird, rufous treepie, spotted owlet, coppersmith barbet etc.

On the same day, Kamlesh Pawar encouraged 30 students of Government Middle School, Kundai to participate in an awareness rally. Students raised slogans to create awareness among villagers for water conservation.

To mark the beginning of summer and end of spring, Hindus celebrate the festival of colours, Holi. As part of Holi celebrations, people traditionally burn camp fires as a symbol of destruction of evil. Huge numbers of trees are cut down and burnt adding to deforestation and habitat loss. During Holi, people also play with colours which are made using harmful chemicals. These chemicals mix with soil and water and degrade the eco system.

On March 22, Niranjan taught 13 children of Khamba village how to celebrate Holi in an eco-friendly manner. They participated in a cleanliness drive in their village and burnt bio-degradable waste material instead of fresh firewood.

Niranjan also taught them to use natural colours made from Palash flowers which are available in plenty during this season near the village. The natural colour has medicinal properties and is not harmful to nature unlike chemical-based colours. Niranjan organized a similar programme at Satosha in which 6 children actively participated. 

On March 26, Niranjan along with 4 children of Turia and 5 children of Satosha installed water containers in their respective villages for birds to drink water from during the summer season. The innovative artificial water containers were made using discarded plastic bottles. Niranjan encouraged the children to regularly fill up the containers with water so that the birds can drink water during dry summer season.

Shortly after the containers were installed, the children were able to spot various birds like bulbuls, sunbirds, shrikes, sparrows and magpie robins coming down to drink.

On March 29, Niranjan Hinge demonstrated use of improved chullah (stove) in Telia. 25 villagers learnt the use of the chullah which requires 40% less firewood than conventional chullahs. The chullah also produces less smoke as compared to the conventional chullah and is thus less harmful for the user.

In March, we organized a total of 8 nature trails for the children of Satosha, Khamba, Teliya, Turia, Durgapur, Potiya, Doodhgaon and Mohgaon villages. On the trails, our staff spoke to the children about the various plants and common medicinal uses of those plants. They were also taught how to spot and identify birds. The importance of birds in nature was also explained to the children.

Environmental Education Programme

21 educational programmes took place in March and there were attended by 592 students.  

                 Mobile Health Unit (MHU)

We held 6 medical camps in March, in which 128 patients were treated.

Mrs. Geeta, w/o Dinesh Kumre, is a 32 year-old resident of Dewri village. She was suffering from stomach ache and high fever due to gynaecological problems for two weeks. The nearest gynaecologist is located in Chhindwara, 65km away from the village. Since Mrs Geeta is a lactating mother and is working as a nurse with Government Primary Health Centre, it was difficult for her to travel to Chhindwara for proper medical treatment. She learnt about the medical camp by Satpuda Foundation in Dewri village on March 19 and visited the camp.

Dr Zanzal examined her and prescribed appropriate medicines. After regular follow-up by Kamlesh, Mrs Geeta informed that her health improved, thanks to our assistance. Mr Saheblal Kumre, father-in-law of Mrs Geeta, who was ex-president of the village eco-development committee (VEDC), Dewri village, also thanked Satpuda Foundation for organising such medical camps. He is now assisting Satpuda Foundation in various conservation activities.

Abhi Masram, s/o Mr Kamlu Masram, is a 2 year-old child residing at Dewri village. He was suffering from skin rashes for more than two weeks. Mr Kamlu learnt about the medical camp set up by Satpuda Foundation in Dewri village on March 19 and brought his son for a check-up. Dr Zanzal, after diagnosis, provided appropriate treatment and advised the parents on ways to prevent such skin ailments in future. On following up, Kamlesh was informed that Abhi was cured of the skin rashes. The youngster’s parents are thankful to Satpuda Foundation and have promised to assist us in our conservation activities.