Footprints on the Mountainside

I had blogged about the children’s outdoor education programmes Wide Aware is currently conducting at the Sanjay Gandhi National Park. I’d like to share a brief and rather rough video of the proceedings.

Do share information on similar programmes you come across

The New Year is almost here, and the greeating cards with best wishes are flooding in. Just today, I received some 34 greeting cards. Many of them were from people I don’t even remember. I doubt if I am going to read them all - ever. Perhaps some of the really interesting ones, I might read.

If this is the state of my cards, what is happening around the world? How many trees have died, for cards, no one even bothers to read?

I rarely use paper for my work. And when I do, I use both sides, most of the time. It not only keeps the number of papers more controllable in terms of storage, but also helps me be more organised with a computer, leading to an efficient information storing and recovery method, which ends up saving a lot of time and effort for me.

Raka is also very particular about being careful with resources, and we often collect the clean plastic bags we have and return them to shops so that they can be reused.

I am sure we make a difference - however small. What if the many of us could actively involve ourselves into making tiny changes in our habits, to create a massive positive influence on our planet?

With this in mind, I went to the WWF website and got this information to share with the readers here, so that anyone interested, knows exactly what they can do and can begin, without further ado.

I’m not inviting anyone. It is your planet as much as mine.

Save Wood and Paper Return unwanted mail and ask for your name to be removed from the mailing list. Always use both sides of a sheet of paper. Use e-mail to stay in touch, including cards, rather than faxing or writing. Re-use envelopes. Always recycle paper after use. Share magazines with friends and pass them on to the doctor, dentist or local hospital for their waiting rooms. Use recyclable paper to make invitation cards, envelops, letter pads etc.

During Holidays Go on holiday during the off-peak period to prevent over straining resources - you’ll also avoid the crowds. Find out about your destination before you go on holiday - it may be an environmentally sensitive area. Doing this will also ensure you are informed of what to see and any local customs. Find out about places before you visit. You may be visiting a environmentally sensitive area, in which case you must take extra care to stay on footpaths and follow signs. Don’t travel by air if you can avoid it because air travel uses up large amounts of fossil fuels and creates greenhouse gases. Avoid taking things on holiday that you will throw away. Dispose of any rubbish responsibly - it can be hazardous to wildlife. Ask your travel agent or tour operator what they are doing to be environmentally responsible. Use public transport, cycle or walk instead of using a car. Use facilities and trips run by local people whenever possible. Don’t be tempted to touch wildlife and disturb habitats whether on land, at the coast or under water. Be careful what you choose to bring home as a holiday souvenir. Many species from coral and conch shells to elephants and alligators are endangered because they are killed for curios or souvenirs. Don’t leave any rubbish at the beach - turtles are often killed by plastic bags they’ve mistaken for jellyfish and many items take years to degrade as well as being dangerous. Boats and jet-skis create noise and chemical pollution which is disturbing to wildlife - don’t keep the engine running unnecessarily.

© [date of material] WWF. Some rights reserved.

Food in the outdoors always tastes much better than at home. Sometimes, I think that this is because of all the activity that makes us hungry. At other times, I think the purity of the air and water makes it so. Or perhaps, it could be the simplicity of the cooking that draws attention to the natural flavours of the food.

I am planning to cook much more when I go into the outdoors. To add to my resolve was this article, that got me planning my methods of cooking as well.

So folks, the next time we go out together, it could be likely that I cook for us

I am not posting as frequently as I had imagined when I started this blog. I need to change that.

Currently, I’m working on a series of programmes for the students of the five ACESs (Atomic Energy Central School) for the children of the employees of the BARC (Bhabha Atomic Research Centre) in association with Outdoor Education Training Services. They wanted to introduce outbound experiences among their children rather than the usual picnics to parks and predictable destinations.

For these programmes, OETS had already done a series of one-day programmes with an experience of rappelling and a nature trail for the 9th and 10th classes. When we decided to continue the series, we thought of replacing the nature trail (their complex is very green and has abundant wildlife) with something more “relevant”.

I had been toying with the idea of introducing experiential learning as a mode of development among schools for quite some time and had even done some programmes with schools and colleges, but this group was to be students from the 6th to the 8th classes, so I wanted to keep things from getting “too deep” while ensuring a productive experience as well.

So far, it seems to be going well. The students are enthusiastic and perceptive. What is even more interesting is the interactions with the teachers that accompany them. Experiential learning as a method to actively encourage development of thoughts and motivation among students was an unfamiliar concept, and they were used to didactic education or the learning through imparted information, rather than through personal discovery.

Our focus is “performance” considering that students today are under constant pressure to perform in all aspects of their lives. They feel stressed, but there is little choice beyond defining priorities and shouldering their responsibilities as well as they can. This only increases as they grow up.

I found it very encouraging that the students and teachers alike were very interested in the processes and activities, and discussions often spanned breaks, with new insights flowing. One teacher was pleasantly surprised to see her less-than-hardworking class discover the importance of practice through seeing the changes it brought to their performance in a game.

Another was encouraged to see that gender issues were addressed quite bluntly, when they hampered performance. The students were in the mode of exploring the secrets behind performance and the elements that helped or hindered. As she put it, “They don”t need to be completely comfortable, but at least they need to understand that barriers to communication between the sexes in class were not required, as there was nothing in their lives as students that they couldn’t share with others in the class” We seem to have made good progress on that front with some of the classes.

Another teacher insisted that teachers training programmes based on experiential learning would go a long way to empowering Indian teachers struggling to manage students from the new generation, as they sought the fine balances between discipline and opression; guidance and influence; and teacher and confidant.

At the moment, I’m taking each day as it comes, as each batch of students is different. But I see a new awareness among the students and teachers about learning itself. I hope this grows

These days, I spend a lot of time in the SGNP, in a series of nature trails for school children. Its been years since I did this kind of a thing this regularly, and it was like the good old days, when I used to beg the parents for money and head off into the park every Sunday.

With the heavy monsoons these days, everything is dripping wet, green and tempting. My schedule everyday consistsa of two short nature trails with two groups of the students, and its a time to refresh my love for nature too, as I introduce them to this world.

I am planning to do something I had wanted to do for a long time. I will be writing about specific animals, birds, plants, insects, etc, as well as I can in a series of posts. Let me see how much I remember and how much info I need to hunt for.

Stay tuned!