Tuesday, October 2, 2012

August 2012 Activity Update: Kanha


Team: Amit AwasthiConservation 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.

Bhagpur - Forest Guard Durgesh Dixit addresses villagers
 about vegetable farming













SF's Amit Awasthi, Forest Guard Durgesh Dixit, Sarpanch Fhagu Lal
at the programme on vegetable farming 














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








Batwar - womens' SHG members plant saplings after the rally













Chhapri - Badhe Lal holds up saplings distributed by our team



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.

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.


Mocha - Ramu Thakur, who got a job with our assistance
at Sanjay Tiger Resort
Batwar - Amit Awasthi explains to members of womens' SHGs
how to maintain records


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