Activity Update December 2017: Pench Maharashtra

Highlights:

Nature trail at Mogarkassa, Pauni range

Chargaon - Our Field Assistant Balkrishna talks
 to a women's Self Help Group about livelihood opportunities

Conservation Officer Bandu Uikey talks to students about
native plants on a trail, Chorbahuli

Dr Zanzal at our free health camp at Ghatpendari

Field Assistant Dilip guides students in setting up a nursery
in Ghoti school

Students with the nursery set up at Ghoti school

Nature education class at Sawara school

Conservation Officer Mandar Pingle briefs students during our
residential nature camp at Sillari

Students on safari during our 2-day residential nature camp

Suwardhara - villagers collect and uproot suitable lantana to make
lantana wood products

Suwardhara villagers with lantana products they've made 

Suwardhara villagers collecting lantana for the carpentry programme

Suwardhara villagers cleaning the area around the hand pump

THE FULL REPORT

Team: Abhijit Dutta – Assistant Director (Conservation)

Bandu Uikey – Conservation Officer

            Dilip Lanjewar, Balkrishna Bagmare – Community Officers

Highlights

·      Nursery for saplings set up at Zilla Parishad School in Ghoti

·      5 community patrols in Salai, Shiladevi, Suwardhara, Khapa, Wagholi

·      Lantana craft training programme at Suwardhara

·      One voluntary work project to clean water tank

·      8 nature education programs in village schools with 277 participants and 10 nature education programs for ‘Nisarganubhav’, with 416 participants

·      Two residential nature camps for selected group school students with 71 participants

·      Four youths sent for hospitality training

·      One livelihoods meeting with women’s self help group (SHG)

·      Six free medical camps through Mobile Health Service, 172 patients treated

Conservation

On December 23, Dilip set up a plant nursery at Zilla Parishad (ZP) School, Ghoti, guiding the students on how to set it up and how to maintain the saplings. Various seeds were used for the nursery like mango, neem, bel and badami. The saplings from the nursery will be used for plantation programs later in the village.

From December 24-31, villagers of Suwardhara uprooted lantana camara from agricultural fields and beside the roads to use for furniture making. The participants were taught to uproot the lantana and keep it upside down so that it doesn’t sprout again. The villagers were participating in a training programme organised by us to train them in making handicrafts and furniture from lantana.

On December 10, Bandu joined a night patrol program with Special Tiger Protection Force (STPF) guards on the Maharashtra- Madhya Pradesh border near Ghatpendari to check instances of illegal fishing and logging. Community patrols were conducted on similar lines in Salai, Siladevi, Suwardhara, Khapa and Wagholi. 

On December 23, Suwardhara water tank and the area near the bore-well pump was cleaned by Balkrishna and a few volunteers as part of our community assistance and public cleanliness programme.

Environment Education

During December, 8 nature education programs were conducted in schools covering various topics like man-animal conflict, climate change, nursery management and the need to create nurseries and importance of crop diversification to mitigate the impacts of crop depredation.

School Programs

Ten ‘Nisarganubhav’ programs were conducted, five each in Khapa-Saleghat and Pauni

Mogarkassa respectively. Bandu looked after the programs in Khapa and Dilip, Mandar and Abhijit handled the programmes at Mogarkassa. This program by Maharashtra Forest Department aimed at taking village school students closer to nature by organizing one-day forest outings which included activities like nature walks, nature games, outdoor lectures and group discussions.

Nisarganubhav (Maharashtra Forest Department’s One-day forest outing Program for local school students)

Residential Nature camps were organised under Satpuda Foundation’s banner, with a selected group of students taken for a jungle safari, nursery visit, 'Tiger tale' museum visit and nature walk. The first nature camp was organised in Sillari and Chorbahuli and the second was organised at Saila community center at Pipariya under the IUCN project.

Residential 2-day Nature Camps

IT Education Program

Satpuda Foundation has donated desktops as well as laptops to the Zilla Parishad School in Sawara village and has been conducting IT education program for the students free of cost since the year 2013. Basic computer skills are taught to the students to make them feel comfortable with the technology and improve their IT skills. Ms. Sita, a resident of Sawara village works on an honorarium basis for Satpuda Foundation, wherein, she is able to earn a livelihood as well. Four such classes were held in the month of December 2017.

Employment Cell

Satpuda Foundation’s Lantana Craft Training Program at Suwardhara Village:

Livelihood Meetings

One livelihood meeting was held on December 12 by Balkrishna in Chargaon to discuss two training programmes – one to train villagers in making products from lantana and one to train them in making agarbattis (incense sticks).

Four youth, two each from Zinzeriya and Bandra villages joined a hospitality training programme at Sillari with Satpuda Foundation’s help. They will undergo 2 months of training.

On 31^st December, the Saila Dance Group was invited by Veer Restaurant through Satpuda Foundation for a tribal dance performance for which they earned Rs. 6000. The group was set up with our assistance and is mentored by us.

A programme was organised in Suwardhara by Satpuda Foundation for eleven people belonging to Suwardhara, Siladevi and Chargaon villages. The program aims to provide livelihood to people through lantana, a weed that has invaded the forests and can be found in abundance. The program aims to control the spread of lantana by uprooting it for livelihood purpose. Participants are taught to make handicrafts and furniture from lantana.

Mobile Health Service (MHS)

There were 6 medical camps held in December in which 172 patients were treated.