BackNurture Nature | Born wild
Introduce your child to the world of animals, birds and amphibians; here's how to get started
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Vidya Narayanan saw the signs when her son Gautam was just 5. He was hooked to wildlife. “That was just the way it was, there was nothing I did to make it happen," says Narayanan. Gautam loved reading about animals and watching them on TV, and even started going birdwatching with neighbours. In April, Gautam, 12, attended his first wildlife camp organized by Bangalore-based herpetologist, Gerry Martin.
The camp in Agumbe, in Karnataka’s Shimoga district, was all about snakes and frogs. “He spends his free time in the balcony with binoculars, making lists," says his mother, laughing that she has heard stories about how her son begged to hold a venomous snake but was not allowed to at Martin’s camp. “Thank heavens," she adds.
“Children are born naturalists. They are born with a sense of wonder and affinity for nature which they explore with all their senses, experiment and communicate their findings to others," reads the flier for a young naturalists training programme conducted by Martin.
“It’s a fact," says Martin, who has been organizing workshops for children for more than a decade. Martin’s classes include exposure to nature and wildlife that most often spotlight his pet subjects, reptiles and amphibians. Children squealing in the excitement, joy and fear of a new experience while holding non-venomous snakes or a turtle, is not unusual. “Being with nature makes you draw from your wits and skills," he says.
“Education is not static, it has to be dynamic and look at the social sensibilities of the time. And today’s social sensibilities demand that we look at the ecosystem around us," says Sreekanth Sreedharan of the Wipro Applying Thought in Schools—an initiative by the IT company to introduce societal change and development via schools. In a project called SeasonWatch with the National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), he is teaching children from over 200 schools to observe the changes in trees and record them as the seasons change. “While they are making these observations, they might spot a bug or a bird and wonder what it is," he hopes.
Adds Suhel Quader, who heads the NCBS project: “I grew up being a birdwatcher and have an ear for bird calls and tweets. My subconscious is tuned to that even in the city noise. With this project we see children bring the trees and the creatures into the forefront," he says.
But the disconnect is not only an urban phenomenon.
Pranav Trivedi, director of conservation, Snow Leopard Trust (India programme), and head of education and outreach and senior scientist with the Nature Conservation Foundation (NCF), first started working with city children with the Centre for Environment Education (CEE) in Ahmedabad, organizing outdoor environmental educational classes for urban schools. “That had a pedagogical structure, but was necessary. Children in the city look at mud as dirt but push them to ask questions about why a plant has thorns or how a shark navigates in water and they are piqued," says Trivedi.
He has been working with schools in the Ladakh region since 2005 to educate children about their environment and help them understand the wildlife they coexist with. “Here there is human conflict with the wild, the snow leopard is part of their lives and they need to see why it is important," says Trivedi.
While these students are more familiar with nature, they come padded with legends and myths that make them fear nature. “The snow leopard is the bad guy who kills their livestock," says Trivedi. “I try and make them use all their senses and experience themselves in their environment," he says, throwing in the idea of biophilia, the hypothesis that suggests that there is an instinctive bond between human beings and other living systems. “Over time they say they understand the right of the snow leopard to live, but then are angry that they kill their sheep. That they can express those two very contradictory emotions is an important step," says Trivedi. Most experts agree that the best place to introduce the ecosystem to children is at home, but that there is a responsibility on the part of the educational system to weave in nature.
CEE, supported by the Union ministry of environment and forests, has a two-pronged approach for reaching out to children on forestry, wildlife and nature. “We work with school boards to include chapters in textbooks," says Santosh Sutar, programme officer at CEE, adding that this is reinforced by sensitizing teachers in such topics when they take up bachelor’s in education (BEd) courses. “That is the formal approach, but it’s the experiential part that turns out to be not only fun but makes consistent progress," says Sutar.
CEE is connected with over 200,000 schools across the country through various projects. “Schools in the cities are able to send the students on four- to five-day camps where they learn the names of birds, animals and experience lives outside their computer- and television-enabled lifestyle," says Sutar.
In an article for Lounge (The wild side of life, June 2007) wildlife film-maker Mike Pandey wrote: “The key word is empathy. When you feel connected to all life around you, then a lame dog tugs at your heart and the felling of trees moves you to action. Leaving matkas of water for birds and animals in the blistering summer heat becomes a part of your nature. Then, caged birds are no longer attractive."
Zubin Narielwala, who is the Mumbai coordinator of the Kids for Tigers project started by wildlife magazine Sanctuary Asia 12 years ago, says they have reached out to more than 375 schools so far. “The tiger is just our poster boy. We hope that getting them to be interested in the tiger will make them want to save the tiger’s forest," says Narielwala, who organizes nature trails in national parks near cities to familiarize them with forest areas.
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Discovery Channel
Dial the experts and get out there with an open mind
• Toehold Travel & Photography, in cities across the country
(https://www.toehold.in/kids/)
• The Gerry Martin Project, Chennai and Bangalore
(https://www.facebook.com/pages/ The-Gerry-Martin-Project/72615334944?sk=info)
• Centre for Environment Education, in cities across the country
• Bombay Natural History Society, Mumbai
• The Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology, Chennai (www.madrascrocodilebank.org)
• Indian Wildlife Club, Delhi
pavitra.j@livemint.com
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