Our wildlife e-cards!

This year we decided to greet people with e-cards made from our own photographs. Click here to select and send one.

All the pictures were taken by us - SF/NCSA officers and volunteers - in the reserves we work in: Tadoba, Pench, Melghat, Kanha, Bori-Satpuda. The messages and design were done by Kiran Khalap and Sachin Pawar of chlorophyll brand & communications consultancy. Our volunteer Kirti Chavan created the page and is hosting it.

Do send our e-cards this year to spread the wildlife message around!

November '09 Activity Report

As always, our Conservation Officers have been busy trying to reduce the human footprint in the tiger habitat we work in, in varied and innovative ways. Some snapshots of a few of our November '09 community conservation activities - from the monthly reports compiled by our VP Giri Venkatesan.

Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve



School kids set off on a bird-watching trail at Adegaon



Public hygiene and cleanliness campaign at Kutwanda



Kondegaon school kids water saplings they had planted earlier



Chorgaon - school kids are given the conservation message through a nature game



Chorgaon kids pose next to a check dam they've built

Kanha National Park



Film show at Kutwahi



Restarted bio-gas unit at Kutwahi



Self-help group (SHG) training programme at Batwar

Pench National Park



Plantation drive at Jamuntola



Nature game at Satosha school



Hawking lantana products, and custard apples!



Environment education programme at Jinheriya



Discussing modalities of teaching IT to village kids and youth - Sawra



Discussing the functioning of the eco-development committee, Sillari



Celebrating Children's Day at Sawra



Building a soak pit at Ghoti

Snapshots from the stall

These were taken at our awareness stall at the Indus Festival of Charities, Mumbai, 5 December 2009. The response was encouraging, with quite a few people showing interest in the cause and ten people giving their contact details for our mailing list. One person took posters to distribute and three others were interested in volunteering.

Several people even asked the price of the wildlife photos we had mounted and put on the table! They were very impressed when we told them that the pictures were all taken by our own officers and volunteers, and not by professional photographers. Vishal Bansod's wonderful photo of a python killing a bird was admired the most, and his photo of the Blue Pansy butterfly got lots of oohs and aahs as well.

It was great to meet Abhishek Surana, who had volunteered with SF this summer. He lives in Delhi but is in Mumbai this month doing a course, so he dropped in to meet us and help. Read his posts about his volunteering experience here and here.

This was a good beginning for our Mumbai chapter. We are planning to create much more awareness and let's hope we'll generate much more support through similar activities here. So wish us luck!

Our stall at the Indus Festival of Charities

We have taken a table for SF and NCSA at the Indus Festival of Charities this Saturday. There is no merchandise, it will be an information and awareness outlet. We will give general information about the tiger conservation cause and about our work in the tiger habitat of Central India. Interested people can enlist as volunteers. We will be making Powerpoint presentations about SF and NCSA on our laptops to anyone interested.

Date: Saturday, December 5, 2009
Time: 10.00 a.m. - 5.00 p.m.
Venue: YMCA Colaba
12, Nathalal Parekh Marg (old name Wodehouse Road)
Colaba, Mumbai 400 039
It's near Sahakari Bhandar and Regal Circle.

Please spread the word among Mumbai wildlife-lovers!