Activity Update May 2017: Tadoba

Highlights:

Dewada: Our team Prameek and Ajay discussing livelihood options
with villagers

Katwal: Ajay and Kishor discussing livelihood options
with villagers

Kutwanda - a nature-themed drawing competition

THE FULL REPORT

Field Team: -

Conservation Officer – Prameek Kannan

Field Assistant – Kishor Dudhbarai

Highlights

·      5 Education programmes were conducted in 4 villages – Kondegaon, Katwal, Khutwanda, and Bhamdeli with 13 students

·      These included 1 nature and bird watching trail, 1 nature-themed drawing competition, 1 nature-themed board game session and 2 classroom lectures

·      5 vocational training and employment awareness sessions in 5 villages with 56 participants

Education

Between the 1^st and 3^rd of May, at the height of the summer, our field team visited schools in the villages of Katwal, Khutwanda, Bhamdeli and Kondegaon to engage the students in interactive environmental education activities before the start of their summer holidays.

These included nature-themed drawing competitions and board games as well as classroom lectures. We hoped to send a conservation message in a fun, engaging manner to these impressionable young minds.

On May 22 , we celebrated International Biodiversity Day by taking some youths of Katwal village on a nature and bird-watching trail near a lake known as Katwal Talab near the village. Our field team taught the youths about the different waterfowl that feed from the lake, and how different species manage to co-exist despite the harsh summer, by using different fishing methods to take different kinds of prey. A conservation message we can all learn on how to be innovative and creative with the limited resources on our finite planet, so that both people and wildlife can live side-by-side to avoid conflict and prosper peacefully.

Employment Cell activities

Our field team took to the villages of Mudholi, Katwal, Khutwanda, Junona and Dewada to meet with the village eco-development committee (VEDC) presidents and unemployed youths of these villages to conduct awareness sessions on employment opportunities and about free vocational training programmes Satpuda Foundation can help organise.

One particular problem prevalent among the youths here is an unwillingness to venture outside of their villages or the Tadoba buffer for employment opportunities. Quota limits for gypsy drivers and guides (preferred jobs among many of these youths) in the Park mean that many such youths are left out from these opportunities. We impressed this fact to the youths, their elders and community leaders such as VEDC presidents in our community meetings this month. We also stressed that there were many more economically lucrative opportunities in the cities, such as in the hospitality industry, where our vocational training progammes can help place these youths.