November 2012 Activity Report: Kanha

Team: Amit Awasthi – Conservation Officer

            Sampathlal Dhurve – Field assistant

           

Highlights

·      2 anti-plastic programmes

·      2 vermi-compost pits constructed in 2 villages

·      Community assistance - 2 voluntary work programmes to clean area around well at Chapri and area next to hand pump at Chapri

·      Environment education programme conducted in 11 villages - attended by 370 students

·      Conducted 2-day workshop at Mocha for 6 villages on functioning of Panchayats and how villagers should use them

·      4 unemployed youths placed in local jobs

·      Vegetable seeds distributed to 6 villagers in 2 villages as part of alternative livelihood options

·      3 Capacity-building workshops for SHGs, attended by total of 14 SHGs

·      Seven film shows on nature and wildlife conservation – attended by 296 people

Conservation:

On November 3, our team organized an anti-plastic programme at Patpara. They explained to the students of the Government Middle School about the harmful impact of plastic/polythene on the environment and motivated them to remove such litter from the village. The students went around the village, collecting plastic and polythene litter/waste, which were then buried in a pit on the outskirts of the village. A similar programme was organized at Dhamangaon on November 6.

We also assisted two villagers in preparing vermi-compost tanks as part of our goal to encourage organic farming. Details of the pits are given in the table above. 

Patpara - Vermi-compost tank prepared at Dilesh Maraskole's residence

During November, our team organized 2 programmes to promote public hygiene and cleanliness as part of our community assistance activities. On November 21, a programme was organized at Chapri at Kursitola in which 9 villagers joined hands with Amit and Sampath to clean the area around a well used to draw drinking water. There was a lot of wild growth and weeds around the well as well as growth on the walls inside the well. This was all cleaned up by the team.

Approach to well and surrounding area after cleaning

On November 27, a similar programme was organized at Chowkitola at Chapri. Here, spill over from a hand pump had stagnated around the pump, leading to a small bog in which mosquitoes and insects were breeding in large numbers. 8 villagers joined our team and cleaned up the area of the organic litter and debris. 

Chowkitola, Chapri - cleaning around the hand pump

They also cleaned up a canal which drains the spill over water away from the hand pump. A nearby tank, used by domestic livestock for drinking was also cleaned up. 

Chapri - waste matter removed from a tank used by domestic
livestock for drinking

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 four youths get jobs during the month of November.

Sabjit Walke outside his new place of employment,
Kausalya Resort, Mocha

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.

Patpara - vegetable patch set up by Dilesh Maraskole with our help

Patpara - vegetables grown by Jaisingh

During November, we distributed seeds to 6 villagers in 2 villages. The seeds included the following: cabbage, cauliflower, tomato, spinach, red spinach, onion, ladies’ fingers/okra, radish.

Batwar - Ramprakash Pusam with seeds we gave him

Bhagpur - Amit giving vegetable seeds to Krishnakumar Marawi

On November 4-5, Amit organized a two-day workshop at Mocha to help villagers understand how Gram Panchayats work, the powers of each official and how they could assist villagers in their local development issues.  A total of 40 villagers from Manegaon, Patpara, Sautiya, Kutwahi, Chapri and Mocha attended the workshop.

Mocha - Amit speaks about the functioning of Gram Panchayats
and how to use them to solve local development issues

Mocha - participants pose at 2-day workshop on functioning
of Gram Panchayats

During the month, Amit also organized 3 workshops jointly with Ajiwika, an MP state government rural development initiative, to help SHG members understand how to function better and how to extract optimum benefits from Government schemes. A total of 14 SHGS attended. Details are given below:

November 16 -  Samaiya (one SHG), Batwar (2), Bhagpur (1), Khisi (1).

November 17 -  Kutwahi (2), Patpara (2), Manegaon (1), Chapri (1).

November 23 -  Dhamangaon (3). 

Batwar - meeting of Self-Help Group under Amit's guidance

Dhamangaon - capacity building workshop for village SHG

Khisi - capacity building workshop for SHG

Education Van

There were 7 film shows in November on nature and wildlife conservation.

Batwar - Amit speaks to students of Govt Middle School
before the film show