Team: Amit Awasthi – Conservation 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.
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| Samaiya - the site at Dala Nallah |
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| Bringing the materials |
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| 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.
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| Mocha: Sampathlal speaking to primary school students |
Education van programme
There were 8 film shows on nature and
wildlife conservation in November.
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| 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.
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| Chapri - vegetable patch at Sarita Bai Dhurve's home |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Mocha - capacity-building workshop for women's SHGs |
Employment Cell
We helped two youths get jobs during the month of November.
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