Tadoba: April and May 2011 Updates

The April and May updates sent by our Executive Director, Giri Venkatesan.

Team: Bandu Kumare - Field Assistant

April highlights:

• One shramdaan for water conservation – digging of soak pit at Kondegaon
• Public hygiene campaign in Chorgaon village
• Anti-plastic campaigns in 2 villages – Katwal and Mudholi
• Nature trail/bird-watching in 3 villages –Kutwanda, Kondegaon and Moharli
• Follow-up to plantation done earlier at Adegaon
• Cleaning of surroundings next to bore well at Sitarampeth
• Environment education - classroom visits to 8 schools, attended by 258 students
• 1 unemployed youths placed in job at Chandrapur
• Support to girls trained in tailoring
• Two visits to Bhagwanpur to follow up status of relocated villagers
• Support to MHU (Mobile Health Unit) – medical camps in 6 villages at which 336 patients were treated

Conservation:

S.No	Date	Village	Activity	Participants
1	April 3	Kutwanda	Nature trail	29
2	April 4	Sitarampeth	Fighting fire in forest	10
3	April 6	Kondegaon	Digging of soak pit	2
4	April 11	Katwal	Anti-plastic campaign	18
5	April 13	Chorgaon	Public hygiene cum cleanliness campaign	6
6	April 15	Adegaon	Follow-up to plantation work done earlier	8
7	April 21	Sitarampeth	Cleaning of surroundings next to bore well	4
8	April 23	Moharli	Nature trail	14
9	April 26	Kondegaon	Nature trail	17
10	April 28	Mudholi	Anti-plastic campaign	12

Above: On April 6, our field assistant Bandu Kumare organised a shramdaan (voluntary work) at Kondegaon to dig a soak pit next to a hand pump used to draw drinking water. Two unemployed youths from the village joined hands with Bandu in digging the pit, which will help to recharge the water table.

Above: On April 13, Bandu organised a programme to promote cleanliness and public hygiene at Chorgaon village. In this programme, six villagers joined hands with Bandu to clean the village of litter and waste lying around.

During April, Bandu organised 2 anti-plastic campaigns in which school students cleaned up their respective school campus of plastic litter and waste. The litter/waste was then buried in pits. On April 11, this was done at Katwal Zilla Parishad Primary School and on April 28 at ZP Primary School, Mudholi.

Bandu leads school children of Kutwanda on a nature walk

Above: Bandu, who was formerly a guide at Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, also organized three bird-watching/nature trails for children of ZP Primary School, Kutwanda (April 3), ZP Primary School, Moharli (April 23) and ZP Primary School, Kondegaon (April 26). On the trails, the students were taught about local flora and fauna and the need for conservation.

On April 15, Bandu also organised students of ZP School, Adegaon to do follow-up workon saplings that they had planted last year (2010). The students joined hands with Bandu to water the saplings.

On April 21, Bandu organised a programme to clean up the surroundings next to a bore well at Sitarampeth. Due to stagnating water, the area had become like a bog and was a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects. 4 youths from the village joined hands with Bandu to dig a canal which drained away the stagnant water.

Education:

During the month, Bandu visited 8 schools to give lectures to students on wildlife and nature conservation.

S.no	Date	School	Village	Number of students
1	April 7	Zilla Parishad Primary School	Dewada	18
2	April 15	--do--	Adegaon	22
3	April 20	--do--	Kutwanda	42
4	April 21	--do--	Sitarampeth	15
5	April 23	--do--	Moharli	58
6	April 25	--do--	Bhamdeli	14
7	April 26	--do--	Kondegaon	32
8	April 27	--do--	Katwal	57
		Total		258

Employment Cell:

During April, Bandu arranged for 1 unemployed youth to get a job at Chandrapur. He has been hired as the driver of a Gypsy owned by Pravin Nikode. The young man, Vikram Gedam, is 26 years old and lives in the village Dewada. His monthly salary is Rs 2000.


Vikram Gedam of Dewada

Three girls, who were trained in tailoring and embroidery through our assistance, earned around Rs 2,000 each in April.

Mobile Health Unit (MHU)

A total of 6 villages were covered by our medical camps in April.

S.no	Date	Village	Patients
1	April 8	Bhagwanpur	56
2		Adegaon	49
3	April 9	Jamni	97
4		Navegaon	53
5	April 10	Palasgaon	23
6		Karwa	58
	Total		336

Medical camp at Bhagwanpur, Tadoba


Medical camp at Jamni, Tadoba

May highlights:

• Assisted in fighting fires in the forest on 2 occasions
• One water hole for small animals and birds created at Adegaon
• Cleaned water holes in 3 places
• Follow-up to plantation of saplings at Adegaon and Kondegaon
• Anti-plastic campaigns in 2 villages – Kutwanda and Bhamdeli
• Nature trail/bird-watching in 1 village – Kutwanda
• Cleaning of surroundings next to bore well at Sitarampeth
• Support to girls trained in tailoring
• Two visits to Bhagwanpur to follow up status of relocated villagers
• Support to MHU medical camps in 6 villages at which 283 patients were treated
  

Conservation:

S.No	Date	Village	Activity	Participants
1	May 5	Agarzari	Fighting fire in forest	6
2	May 6	Mudholi	Cleaning of water hole	3
3	May 13	Chorgaon	--do--	1
4	May 13	Adegaon	Follow-up to plantation work done earlier	7
5	May 14	Kutwanda	Public hygiene cum cleanliness campaign	11
6	May 15	Junona	Fighting fire in forest	5
7	May 16	Sitarampeth	Cleaning of surroundings next to bore well	2
8	May 17	Bhamdeli	Anti-plastic campaign	8
9	May 17	Kondegaon	Follow-up to plantation work done earlier	5
10	May 20	Kutwanda	Bird-watching cum nature trail	6
11	May 27	Adegaon	Creating waterhole	3

With the summer at its peak, forest fires became a major hazard. Our teams assisted in fighting fires across the landscape and our field assistant Bandu Kumare helped to fight fires in Tadoba on two occasions.

On May 5, Bandu was on his way back to Moharli from Chandrapur. He noticed a fire in the forest near Agarzari and joined hands with Forest department staff who were already engaged in fighting the fire. It took over one and a half hours to bring the fire under control.

On May 15, Bandu noticed smoke in the forest near Moharli lake on the way to Junona. When he headed to the spot, he found that there was a fire raging there and that FDCM staff were fighting to control it. He joined hands with them. The FDCM staff suspected the fire was the result of carelessness of villagers who were brewing Mahua liquor.

On May 6, Bandu organised a shramdaan at Mudholi to create a water hole on a stream in the jungle around half a km from the village on the way to Kondegaon. Two unemployed youths from the village joined hands with Bandu in the programme. The resultant water body can be used by birds as well as other wildlife. Chital and sambhar are regularly spotted in the area.

On May 13, Bandu cleaned a water hole in the jungle around 1 km from Chorgaon. The water body had become clogged with litter and debris.

The same day, Bandu arranged for students of Zilla Parishad Primary School, Adegaon to tend to saplings planted last year. The students built protection for the saplings and watered them.

On May 14, Bandu organised a programme to clean up the area around the Gram Panchayat Office at Kutwanda. The area had become littered with plastic refuse. 11 students of the ZP Primary School joined hands with Bandu in the programme.

On May 16, Bandu organised a programme to clean up the surroundings next to a bore well at Sitarampeth. Due to stagnating water, the area had become like a bog and was a breeding ground for mosquitoes and other insects. 2 youths from the village joined hands with Bandu to dig a canal which drained away the stagnant water.

On May 17, Bandu organised an anti-plastic campaign at Bhamdeli in which school students cleaned up the village of plastic litter and waste. The litter/waste was then buried in pits. Eight students of the ZP Primary School joined hands with Bandu in this task.

On the same day, Bandu arranged for students of Kondegaon ZP Primary School to check and monitor the health of saplings planted earlier by them in 2010.

Bandu, who was formerly a guide at Tadoba-Andhari Tiger Reserve, also organised a bird-watching/nature trail on May 20. Six temporary, newly-joined guides of the National Park benefited from the trail as Bandu taught them about local flora and fauna and the need for conservation.

Employment Cell:

Three girls, who were trained in tailoring and embroidery through our assistance, earned around Rs 2,000 each in May.

SF volunteer Rajashree Khalap checks quality of bags made by Moharli girls, who were trained in tailoring with our assistance in December 2010.MHU:

A total of 6 villages were covered by our medical camps in May.

S.no	Date	Village	Patients
1	May 7	Zari	27
2		Pangdi	63
3	May 8	Doni	31
4		Dewada	47
5	May 9	Piparheti	76
6		Pahami	39
	Total		283