Activity Update April 2018: Pench Maharashtra

Highlights:

Nature education class at Awleghat school

These lantana hairpins were made by women in Chargaon.
They have been bought by a Bengaluru agency.

Chargaon - meeting of villagers and Forest Department staff
to discuss forest and wildlife conservation issues

Chargaon villagers displaying lantana products they've made

Dr Zanzal at our free health camp at Dhaulapur

Ghoti - Azolla tank set up to provide nutritious fodder for livestock

Ghoti: New waterhole dug by our volunteers

Kadbikheda: our Field Assistant Dilip talks to villagers about
fire prevention 

Khapa - Field Assistant explains the importance of trees on a nature trail

Khursapar gate: our interns explain the benefits of wildlife tourism
to guides, drivers and Forest Department staff

Mahekepar: Field Assistant Bandu motivated villagers to restart
the inactive Village EcoDevelopment Committee

Volunteers clean a waterhole in the park

Our volunteers patrolling the Saleghat beat with our staff

Our team Bandu and Balkrishna assist in putting out a forest fire

Shiladevi students learn about computers 

Surewani gate: Our interns discuss the benefits of wildlife tourism wiith
guides, drivers and villagers

THE FULL REPORT

Team: Abhijit Dutta – Assistant Director (Conservation)

Bandu Uikey – Assistant Conservation Officer

            Dilip Lanjewar, Balkrishna Bagmare – Field assistants

Highlights

·      Five community patrols

·      Assisted in fighting fires in forest twice

·      One new waterhole built, one existing waterhole cleaned and de-silted

·       Two village eco-development committees (VEDCs) re-activated

·      Workshop on forest protection and forest fire prevention at Chargaon

·      One meeting on forest fire prevention at Kadbikheda

·      One meeting on organic farming at Khapa

·      Earth Day awareness program on 22^nd April at Siladevi

·      Two nature trails

·      Six school education programs with 126 student participating

·      Weekly IT education classes at Sawara and Siladevi

·      Marketing assistance to lantana craft artisans

·      Two youths sent to Forest dept.’s organic farming workshop

·      Follow-up of candidates sent for driver’s training program

·      Six free medical camps, 137 patients treated

·      Research on ‘Assessing benefits of wildlife tourism for communities and conservation in Tiger Reserves of Vidarbha’

Conservation Action and Awareness

On April 29, Bandu and Abhijit saw smoke coming out from the forest behind Wanera village. As the area is inaccessible by road, Bandu immediately informed the Forest Department staff at Narhar check-post about the fire and they sent a wireless message to Nagalwadi Range Office.

On the same day, the villagers at Siladevi informed us about a massive forest fire behind their village. Bandu, Balkrishna and Abhijit went to douse of the fire with some villagers and informed the Forest Department staff who later arrived with blowers to extinguish the fire.

A similar incident happened in Salai beat on April 23, where Dilip helped the Forest Department staff in dousing a forest fire.

On April 14, a water hole was cleaned and de-silted in compartment no. 659 in Saleghat beat.

A new waterhole was constructed near Ghoti village for birds and smaller wildlife on April 16. The waterholes are of great help to wildlife especially in the summer months due to water scarcity.

On April 4, Bandu helped in the re-activation of the VEDC at Mehkepar, Kolitmara which was inactive for a few months. Bandu helped in mobilizing villagers to elect new members for the VEDC and motivated them to work and take full benefit of government schemes so that pressure on the forests is reduced. RFO West Pench, forest guards and villagers were present during the re-activation.

A similar program was conducted by Bandu to re-activate Surera VEDC in Kolitmara on April 10.

Dilip organised an awareness programme on preventing forest fires with VEDC members and villagers of Kadbikheda on April 13.

On April 8, Dilip organised an awareness programme on organic farming at Khapa.

A workshop on forest protection and forest fire prevention was organised in Chargaon which was attended by RFO Nagalwadi, VEDC presidents of Chargaon and Suwardhara and villagers. The villagers were shown a movie on forest protection and fire fighting and were encouraged to take action on forest protection by RFO, Nagalwadi.

Five community patrolling programs were organised in Saleghat, Siladevi, Wagholi and Khapa. Such patrolling helps in checking illegal activities around villages through community participation. A night foot patrol was carried out in Siladevi after a forest fire incident on the same day.

On April 22, Earth Day was celebrated with school students in Siladevi. They were taken for a nature trail and were taught the importance of conserving the local village forests and the benefits they provide in the form of watershed and biodiversity. Dilip organised similar nature trails for students in Khapa and Ghoti.

An Azolla cattle feed tank set up last month at Ghoti showed results with the tank full with Azolla this month. Azolla helps cattle and poultry with improved quality of feed.

On April 5, Bandu helped in submission of 15 names to Gram Panchayat for new cooking gas connection under PM Ujjwala Yojna for Ghatpendari village. The connections will help in reducing dependence on local forests for fuel wood.

Environment Education

School Education Programs

In the month of April, a total of six school education programs were conducted by our team in which students were given lectures on man-animal conflict, biodiversity conservation, climate change and other issues related to nature conservation. 

A total of 126 students attended these programmes.

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 2013. Basic computer skills are taught to the students to make them feel comfortable with technology and improve their IT skills. Sita Uikey, a resident of Sawara village works on an honorarium basis for Satpuda Foundation to impart IT education to the students. Four such classes were held in April in ZP School, Sawara.

This programme has been extended to Siladevi village where the IT Education program was inaugurated in ZP School Siladevi in March 2018. A new Raspberry-pi system was donated by Sushant Kudagi from Karnataka through Satpuda Foundation. Four classes were held in April in ZP School, Siladevi.

Employment Cell

Satpuda Foundation helped in creating a market linkage for lantana craft artisans of Pench Tiger Reserve with ‘Ragi Kana’, a weekly rural display market in Bengaluru. Raghu, who is associated with ‘Ragi-kana’ had placed some orders on test basis from three craftsmen in Pench Tiger Reserve. The craftsmen completed the order and sent the products to Bengaluru. Depending on the demand for these products in Bengaluru, further orders may be placed for various lantana products. The artisans were encouraged to display and sell their lantana items at Bhivsen mela which is a popular annual mela in Parseoni region attended by thousands of people.

Two youths from Ghatpendari village were encouraged to participate in a one-day organic farming training workshop organised by the Forest Department in Surewani on 18^th April. They learnt techniques of organic farming, how to grow vegetables with maximum output and the importance of pesticide- and chemical fertilizer-free farming. The two youths have pledged to practice organic farming in the next agricultural cycle.

Forest Department’s Organic Farming Workshop

Satpuda Foundation had helped the Forest Department in mobilizing, selecting and sending candidates for a driver’s training program funded by BCRLIP in September 2017. As the candidates have already completed the training and some of them have cleared the RTO tests, Satpuda Foundation followed up to know about their job placements. Our field team regularly meets these candidates and mentors and encourages those who are still unemployed to take up jobs. We have listed out the youths who have not cleared the RTO exams and planned a one-day workshop to train them to handle the computer-based RTO tests as most of the candidates lack basic computing skills.

Follow-up of youths sent for Driver Training Program funded by BCRLIP during September 2017

Mobile Health Service (MHS)

There were six medical camps in April in which 137 patients were treated.

Research

Two interns have joined Satpuda Foundation to work on a project- ‘Assessing benefits of wildlife tourism for communities and conservation in Tiger Reserves of Vidarbha’, the final report of which will be produced in June 2018.

The interns are conducting structured/ unstructured interviews, group discussions and questionnaire surveys with tourist guides, drivers, gypsy owners, people from hospitality sector and villagers. They are also analyzing socio-economic surveys and data from Forest Department records to reach a conclusion as to how tourism is shaping the local economy and helping in conservation.