Team: Amit Awasthi – Conservation Officer
Sampathlal Dhurve – Field assistant
Highlights
·
Celebrated Wildlife Week
programme in 9 villages
· 1 voluntary work project on water conservation – check dam built at Talab Jhodi nallah, Bhagpur
· One voluntary work project for community assistance – area next to hand pump cleaned at Manegaon
· 4 awareness programmes on vegetable farming
· 3 compost pits prepared in 3 villages
· 2 anti-plastic programmes
· Environment education programme conducted in 11 schools - attended by 283 students
· 8 nature and wildlife film shows -- attended by 676 students
· 3 unemployed youths get jobs through our Employment Cell
Conservation
As part of our water conservation work, we organized a programme to build a check dam on October 11 near Bhagpur. Amit Awasthi and Sampath led a team consisting of 14 members of Aarti and Sithala women’s Self-Help Groups (SHG) and 4 youths from the village. The dam was built on a stream around 1.5 km in the jungle from the village. The resultant water body benefits both domestic and wild animals. Livestock from the village use the water body in the day while wild animals use it at night. Nilgai, gaur, spotted deer and sambar are regularly spotted in the area. Photos below.
On October 11, Amit and Sampath led a team of 10 people in a programme to clear wild growth around a hand pump at Manegaon. Due to heavy rains, wild growth had proliferated around the hand pump and access to the hand pump was affected. Our team, which comprised 5 youths and 5 women from the village, removed the wild growth and cleaned the area. Photos below.
Our team encourages organic farming as part of our strategy to reduce the impact of chemical fertilizers on fields adjoining prime wildlife areas. Part of our work includes assistance to villagers in setting up vermi-compost tanks and compost pits. During October, we helped 3 villagers dig compost pits – Ravi Uikey of Kutwahi on October 23, Shobey Lal Maravi of Bhagpur on October 28 and Chainsingh Markam of Sautiya on October 31.
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| Compost pit at Chainsingh's home, Sautiya |
On October 2, our team organized an anti-plastic programme at Mocha. Amit and Sampath spoke to the villagers about the harmful impact of plastic/polythene on the environment and motivated them to remove such litter from the village. The team of villagers and 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 anti-plastic programme was organized at Manegaon on October 15.
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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| Batwar - nature education class |
Education van programme
There were 8 film shows on nature and wildlife conservation in October.
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| Film screening at Mocha |
Employment Cell
We helped 3 youths get jobs during the month of October.
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| Anup Vyam at Maple Resort, Chhapri |
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| Chhotu Uikey, now a security guard at Koushalya Resort, Mocha |
Livelihood programmes
As part of our programme to help villagers find alternative livelihood options which will reduce their dependence on forests, we have been encouraging villagers around Kanha to take up vegetable farming. Due to the presence of several resorts around Mocha and a steady flow of tourists, there is a good demand for fresh vegetables. Over the past 3 years, we have assisted around 15 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. To encourage more villagers to take up this activity, we conducted four awareness programmes in October at Kutwahi, Batwar, Chapri and Sautiya.
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