Tuesday, December 30, 2014

Activity Update November 2014: Kanha

Team: Amit AwasthiConservation Officer
            Sampathlal Dhurve – Field assistant
           
Highlights  

·      1 voluntary work project on water conservation – check dam built at Dala nallah, Samaiya
·      One voluntary work project for community assistance – cleaning of area around hand pump at Chapri
·      2 awareness programmes on organic vegetable farming
·      Distributed vegetable seeds to villagers
·      8 nature and wildlife film shows -- attended by 466 students
·      Environment education  programme conducted in 12 schools - attended by 377 students
·      1 capacity-building workshop for women’s SHGs           

·      2 unemployed youths placed in resorts  

Conservation                  











In water conservation work, we organized a programme to construct a check dam on November 16. The site of the dam was Dala nallah, a stream adjoining the jungle around 0.5 km from Samaiya village. Eleven villagers, including members of Durga women’s self-help group (SHG), unemployed youths and village elders comprised the team which built the dam. Wildlife and domestic livestock will both benefit from this water body. Nilgai and sambhar are spotted regularly in the area.

Samaiya - the site at Dala Nallah

















Bringing the materials


















Completed check dam


















On November 23, Amit and Sampath led a team of 18 students in a programme to clean the area around a hand pump at Kursitola in Chapri. Wild growth had proliferated around the pump. Our team removed the wild growth and cleared the area next to the hand pump. Photos below.





















































Education  

During the month our team organized environment education programmes in 12 schools in the villages in our area of operations.

















Mocha: Sampathlal speaking to primary school students















Education van programme

There were 8 film shows on nature and wildlife conservation in November.









Batwar film screening



















Livelihood programmes

As part of our programme to reduce pressure on forests, we have been encouraging villagers to take up alternative livelihood options. In Kanha, we have been encouraging villagers to take up vegetable farming as there are several resorts around Mocha and there is a steady flow of tourists who require fresh vegetables. Over the past 2 years, we have assisted around 30 villagers in taking up vegetable farming and they are earning around 500-1,000 rupees a week in additional income. The vegetable patches are typically of small size and located in the backyards of the residences. Some villagers have now got enough confidence to expand and are planning to use part of their farm land for this activity.

Chapri - vegetable patch at Sarita Bai Dhurve's home

















Amit inspecting vegetable patch set up by Khelan Bai, Manegaon


















To encourage more villagers to take up this activity, we conducted two awareness programmes in November at Batwar, Chapri.

Batwar - Amit conducting awareness campaign on vegetable farming



















Vegetable Seed distribution

We also distributed seeds to villagers to help them get started in this activity. Details are given in the table below.





Chapri - Amit distributes seeds to encourage organic vegetable farming



















SHG capacity building programme

As part of our assistance to villagers in alternative livelihoods, we help women set up self-help groups (SHGs) to start their own small businesses. During November, we organized a workshop for a total of 6 SHGs and taught them how to how to maintain documents and conduct proceedings. The SHG members were also introduced to livelihood options that they could take up. The workshop was organized jointly with Ajiwika Mission – a project by the Madhya Pradesh state government to help empower women.















Mocha - capacity-building workshop for women's SHGs















Employment Cell

We helped two youths get jobs during the month of November.