Team: Amit
Awasthi – Conservation Officer
Sampathlal Dhurve – Field
assistant
Highlights
- Conservation rallies in 3 villages
- Awareness programmes on vegetable farming in 6 villages
- 3 compost pits constructed in 2 villages
- 3 smokeless chullahs constructed in 2 villages
- 2 unemployed youths placed in local jobs
- Plantation programmes in 2 villages
- Cleaning of 9 wells used to draw drinking water
- Environment education programme
conducted in 11 villages - attended by 376 students
- Distributed and planted 130 saplings in 3 villages
Conservation work
Our Kanha team has been encouraging local villagers to take up vegetable
farming on a commercial basis in a bid to help them generate additional income.
There is scope for commercial farming of vegetables due to the large number of
hotels and resorts around Kanha. During August, we organised awareness
programmes about vegetable farming in 6 villages. The details are given in the
table above.
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| Bhagpur - Forest Guard Durgesh Dixit addresses villagers about vegetable farming |
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| SF's Amit Awasthi, Forest Guard Durgesh Dixit, Sarpanch Fhagu Lal at the programme on vegetable farming |
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| Kutwahi - awareness programme on vegetable farming |
We also assisted three villagers in digging
compost pits as part of our goal to encourage organic farming. Details of the
pits are given in the table above.
Our team organised 3 conservation rallies during August to promote the
conservation message among villagers. Amit and Sampath led school children and
adults through their villages, chanting slogans with a conservation message. At
the end of the rallies, participants planted saplings in the village schools.
 |
| Patpara - children set off on conservation rally |
Two women’s self-help groups (SHGs), Gondwana SHG and Tiranga SHG, also
participated in the rallies (below). The women used the rally to speak to villagers
about the need to protect forests and wildlife. Both SHGs are based at Batwar.
 |
| Batwar - women's SHG conservation rally |
During the month, our team took advantage of the monsoon rains to launch plantation drives in the villages. Foundation for Ecological Security (FES) and the Forest Department supplied saplings, some of which are stored at the residence of our field assistant Sampathlal Dhurve and others at the Forest Department’s check post (chowki) at Chapri. During August, we arranged for villagers to get 170 saplings,all of which were planted. The saplings were of the awla, bamboo and khamer species.
Plantation programme
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| Batwar - womens' SHG members plant saplings after the rally |
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| Chhapri - Badhe Lal holds up saplings distributed by our team |
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| Chhapri - villagers collect saplings to plant in their fields |
During the month our team also rendered community assistance by helping to clean 9 wells used to draw drinking water. We collected the cleansing agents from the hospital at Mocha and provided them to different villages.
Our Kanha team has been promoting the use of smokeless/low smoke chullahs (stoves) in a bid to reduce the consumption of firewood. The programme was promoted by Ajeewika, a M.P. state government initiative to improve rural livelihoods. Local Ajeewika officials asked us for our assistance in implementing the programme in the villages in our area of operations. Although Ajeewika wound up its operations in May, we have continued with the programme. In August, we helped 3 villagers set up smokeless chullahs in their residences: Dhruv Singh and Shyam Singh of Patpara and Tulsiram of Manegaon.
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| Manegaon - Tulsi Ram with his smokeless chullah |
Education
During the month our team organized environment education programmes in 11 schools in the villages in our area of operations.
Employment Cell
We helped two youths get jobs during the month of August.
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| Mocha - Ramu Thakur, who got a job with our assistance at Sanjay Tiger Resort |
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| Batwar - Amit Awasthi explains to members of womens' SHGs how to maintain records |
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