Mowgli Bal Utsav
Kapil Sahasrabuddhe, Centre for Environment Education

Helping children learn by experiencing and exploring nature is one of the most effective methodologies for conservation education. Government of Madhya Pradesh (MP) has been organizing Mowgli Bal Utsav, a unique students programme since 2004.

The main objective of the Utsav is to create love and enthusiasm for nature and generate awareness, primarily among students towards biodiversity and conservation.

The central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh (MP) has diverse eco-regions from west to east. The region also has diversified tribal cultures in different parts. With 25 Wildlife Sanctuaries and 9 National Park along with 5 Tiger Reserves is known as ‘India’s Tiger State‘.

Mowgli, the famous character created by Rudyard Kipling in the Jungle book, grew up in the jungles of Seoni in MP. The Mowgli Bal Utsav was initiated with the idea of organizing an experience for children that would give them a glimpse of Mowgli’s life, to learn about and relate with nature. The hope has been that many of these Mowgli’s friends would grow up championing the cause of conservation in a world that has so far paid scant regard to environmental concerns.

The programme
Selection of ‘Mowgli ke Dost’
The preparations for Mowgli Bal Utsav start about four months before the actual event. The selection process itself is fun. Two girls and two boys are selected from each district through a three-level selection process. The first level is called Mowgli ke doston ki khoj (the search for the friends of Mowgli), where students from 5th to 12th Std in two categories participate in an essay competition at school level, which has topics like ‘Animal school’, ‘The elephant makes a film’, ‘A rat going to city’ – are given. About 65,000 schools participate at this level.

The selected students of category 5-8 and 9-12 participate in the second level selection that takes place at the block level. They undergo a quiz competition on the natural and cultural resources of Madhya Pradesh.

At the third level, a district-level quiz competition is arranged to finally select the four students who would participate in the final camp. The quiz has different rounds like Picture round, Rapid Fire Round and Question answer round. The question bank and rules for quiz are developed in advance with help of master trainers and improved in last three years.

The State-level Camp
A three-day camp is organized at a selected National Park in close coordination with district administration. Total 204 students (4 students each from 48 districts of the state—the winners of the district level competition and the host district has the privilege of sending 12 more students), 50 teachers (1 per district and 3 from host district) and 20 facilitators participate in the camp. All students and teachers are divided in to 3 large groups and 12 small groups. About 4 teacher facilitators and 4 forest department facilitators are associated with each large group.

Camp Structure
The total duration of the camp is five days, including the three main days of activities. Students arrive on the evening of the first day, participate in all the activities for three days and leave early in the morning of the fifth day.

All participants stay in tents and use sleeping bags to experience forest life up close. In 2005, about 50 such tents were erected in the forest area of Panna tiger reserve. A special catering cell caters to food requirements. Their task is to prepare a variety of local food using available wild edible plants engaging local people. This gives a very special touch to camp where students can learn while eating.

Apart from structured programmes, students are also encouraged to write their creations. Students come out with various poems, nature descriptions, questions, pictures, cartoons etc. A daily bulletin is published in the camp where these creations are showcased. Also they are encouraged to send their thoughts, questions, poems to ‘Mowgli ‘after they reach home. Selected creations are published in ‘Mowgli ki Pati’ (Mowgli’s letter to his friends), a wall paper magazine.

A special camp kit is developed each year. It consists of designed rucksack, T-shirt, ID badges and cap. A water bottle, writing material and educational material by different organization for camp or other wise specially developed for Utsav are also part of kit. A locale specific observation booklet is one of the specialized components of kit. This booklet has questions, pictures, drawing, related various camp activities. They can use the booklet and the activities in them during the camp. But it is not mandatory and it is upto them how much they will like to use it. This booklet is developed with help of facilitators in training camps.

Educational Activities
CEE develops a detailed plan for educational activities each year for different forest reserves in consultation with the camp educators. A three-day camp is specifically designed to have a number of activities to let children learn while having fun. Nature trails or treks, wild life safari, visit to interpretation centre and nature games are some of them.

In order to creatively tap the learning potential in the camp situation, it was necessary to orient all the stakeholders to the purpose of the camp, and especially the educational methodologies that might be best suited to the camp situation. CEE with the support of MP Biodiversity Board, Environment Planning and Coordination Organization, Bhopal and local forest officials is responsible for this task.

The process is managed at two levels. At the state level selection process, Master Trainers are trained to coordinate the activities. Rules as well as other details of quiz like marking system, how many people are required, how to use question bank, what to do in case of tie, etc. are discussed at this workshop.

For the facilitators who undertake various activities with students during the camp, workshops are organized in the district where the Mowgli Bal Utsav Camp is supposed to happen that year. Fifteen teachers and ten Forest Dept persons from the district are selected in this first workshop. Site and places of outdoor activities are selected during this workshop. Next, a four-day workshop is organized about a month in advance of the actual camp to identify the different activities to be done during the camp. All these activities are undertaken by the facilitators and details of each activity are worked out. For example, treks are an important outdoor activity during the camp. All the trails are walked down by the facilitators to get a feel of the trek, to estimate the time required to walk, to identify spots where specific nature observation activity like observe dead tree could be performed etc. Based on this four-day camp, a detailed facilitator’s manual is developed. A three-day camp schedule is also developed in this workshop.

Prior to the Mowgli camp, a three-day refresher camp for facilitators is organized to conduct all the activities as per the schedule and to fine-tune the schedule. This camp is also helpful for facilitators to adjust with local situations. Facilitators also work out the personal schedule and rotation of facilitators for different activities.

Networking
Mowgli Bal Utsav is a multi-partner programme. The partners involved in the programme are mainly different government department and agencies ranging from school education, biodiversity, the local administration and tribal development departments. An additional advantage of this programme is sensitization on issues related to environment education and its methodologies among the different department and officials of the state who get involved in the planning and implementation.

The Mowgli Bal Utsav helps creates a positive environment towards environment education in general and biodiversity education in specific. The children and the teachers are often highly motivated during the Utsav. A few follow-up activities have been designed to continue the enthusiasm generated during the Utsav.

‘Mowgli Ki Pati’ (Letter from Mowgli to friends), a wall paper newsletter in Hindi was initiated in 2005 as part of the programme. This letter covers information on rich biodiversity of Madhya Pradesh and its utilization, environmental games, activities for eco-clubs and thoughts of students and teachers. Presently it reaches about one thousand schools.
The Mowgli ke Dost (Fiends of Mowgli) – students who participate in the Utsav - are the main crusaders to take message of Mowgli to lager audience. They themselves are taking various activities related environment. Hundreds of letters that are received by the organizers after the Utsav assure us that Mowgli’s messages are being heard.

After participating in Mowgli Utsav, my view towards nature has completely changed. Before the visit I was scared and disliked animals and insects. My instantaneous reaction on seeing them was to harm or kill. (Now) I am more compassionate about animals and insects, I cannot harm them and try to convince others too. Recently I had two mongooses visiting home. My family's immediate reaction was to hurt them. However I stopped them and explained wildlife's importance in our lives, thankfully my family understood my point of view and did not kill the mongoose. Rajesh Kumar Bakode, Seoni, MP

Mowgli is my guru. He presented to us the unique relation we share with the jungles, animals, birds and human beings. Our life is not possible without the interconnectedness with all of these elements. With him at MU, I learnt to love and have compassion towards nature and wildlife.
Archana Shrivstav, Shri Arvindo English School, Panna

Rajesh and Archana were part of the first batch of students who participated in Mowgli Utsav.

First Mowgli Bal Utsav @ Pench National Park – Mowgli’s Home
November 2004

During the Utsav, students took a safari through Pench National park, a boat ride in the Totladoh dam backwaters, environmental games, activities to explore a bamboo forest and a river bed, a nature trail, etc. Students saw a variety of habitats within the forest; saw some of the large wildlife species during the safari, as well as small ones such as spiders and insects during the nature trails, learned about different types of plants, ecological indicators, etc. Time at the base camp helped students unwind and provided an opportunity to express through art and poetry, what they felt and learned through the day. A reading corner provided a variety of reference and fun books on nature and environment.

For more information contact:
Kapil Sahasrabuddhe
Centre for Environment Education
Central Regional Cell
A10 Garden Estate, New D.P. Road, Aundh, Pune 411007
Ph: 020 25898447/ 25887009
Email: kapil.s@ceeindia.org

Students learn about local food plants in Thar desert
Santosh Gupta, Centre for Enviroment Education

The Great Indian Thar Desert represents a unique desert eco-system. The weather is hot and dry and the annual average rainfall is between 20 and 40 cms. The landscape is mostly a dry, flat plain of hardened sand and stones. Some parts are covered by shifting sands, forming sand dunes as high as 70-80 meters and spreading in patches of up to 10 Km.

The rural economy is largely pastoral. Most communities practice some form of subsistence agriculture and semi-nomadic animal husbandry. Much of the arable land is mono-cropped, mostly producing rain fed crops like bajra, kharif pulses and guar. This supplements the incomes from sale of milk, wool and meat. These livelihoods are constrained by severe drought, impoverished soil, saline water sources, and an extreme climate. The productivity of the fragile natural resource base is adversely affected by increasing population density, and intensification of agriculture based on canal or tube/bore-well water. Subsidies in irrigation and agriculture are pushing farmers towards unsustainable farming practices.

Nearly 700 species of plants are recorded from the area. Most of these form part of the regular diet for people (see coloured text). Part of the impacts of natural resource base degradation is a reduction of plant biodiversity. This in turn impacts nutrition and availability of medicinal plants to people. Sufficient quantities of various species of vegetation are also needed for the survival and well-being of livestock in the Thar.

In 2006, Centre for Environment Education developed a programme to address these issues through school children. The programme aimed to enhance awareness about the linkages between a healthy natural environment and human health, occupations, healthy livestock and agriculture, ecology and culture.

Twenty-three government schools, from eighteen villages of Bikaner district were part of the programme. These schools were in regions not touched by canal irrigation and not in canal-fed areas. These schools were especially chosen to be part of the programme as they retain the natural vegetation patterns. The vegetation patterns tend to change in irrigated areas.

In the beginning, in order to assess the students’ knowledge and perception about their local environment, the students were engaged in informal conversation about their local environment. Nature walks were conducted to learn about their ability to identify various plants and animals and their relationship with each other and with water, soil, air and mankind. A questionnaire was prepared based on concepts given in the text books and local environment for the students. This was circulated to about 1200 students in nearly 15 schools. It was found that students didn’t remember definitions and other basic information given in the text books.

However they knew much about the local biodiversity in their region. For example they knew about flowering and fruiting season of local shrubs, the common medicinal plants of the area, the plants growing in their school campus. They could identify the common birds and the relationship between certain birds and cattle. They knew that camels can survive without drinking water for nearly a week.

Based on this understanding, the content focus of the education programme for schools aimed to make students aware of

• Linkages of locally available biodiversity and biomass to health and well being
• Importance of consuming sufficient quantity of dairy products for good health
• Disappearance of local biodiversity and ways to mitigate that loss

Youth and Teacher Orientation
A two-day workshop was organized for orienting teachers towards the issues of biodiversity, natural resource management, and questions for sustainable development in the Thar. The role of teachers in enhancing understanding about these aspects was discussed. The teachers made an action plan for activities to be carried out over a year.

One teacher from each school was appointed as the nodal teacher for that school. The activities were structured around the school time-table, the capacities of teacher and the interest of students. Apart from school-based activities, Bal Sabhas after school were planned. The project activities were interconnected and drew from one another.

Ant-house
Feeding ants was an interesting activity for school children. To build the ant house, first an ant-home was selected away from the play area of the campus. Four bamboos/wooden sticks were put in a square formation around the ant nest. This prevented student from treading upon the ant-home. Some creative students made ‘ant home’ labels on the sticks to indicate that this was ant home. Some got sugar, flour etc. to feed the ants.
Bulletin Board
Environment-related news and features from the local papers were picked up daily and circulated to the schools. This formed an information base for them. Selected portions from the news were read to all children during morning prayers and then pinned on school notice board or some other suitable place.
Vegetation Display
The activity was aimed to help students learn and know more about local vegetation. Students were asked to gather different parts of plants like leaves, flowers and fruit of the local plants from the fields, grazing lands etc. They were encouraged to share their collections with elders and to ask them for more information about each plant species. About 15 to 40 students were engaged in the activity from each school. They were to make a report on the plant find and bring it in to showcase to the entire school.
Learning to Observe and Record Observations
Each school was provided a ‘Nature Education Book Series’ which has four books related to birds, mammals, invertebrates and vegetation of Rajasthan. This series is designed to start a process of self-learning among the user. Food Plant charts were also produced for the programme. This was mounted on school boards and walls.
Plantation
900 saplings were planted in the selected schools. The forest department helped provide the saplings. Care was taken to select saplings of local trees as they were easy to grow, required less care and attract more life around them. Students took care of the saplings right from the plantation to protecting and watering.

Paryavaran Bal Sabhas
Paryavaran Bal Sabhas involved activities conducted in village, after schools hours, by the educated unemployed youth of the village for school children of standard VI to VIII. These Sabhas provide opportunities for intensive learning and group formation of children keen on learning more about environment. At the beginning of the programme, the CEE team initiated the Paryavaran Bal Sabhas in a few villages to learn about various strengths and constraints of activity after school time. Simultaneously, interested youth who could help in leading the Bal Sabhas in various villages were identified. Such interested young people became the nodal points for all Paryavaran Bal Sabha activities. They were supported and trained by the CEE project staff.

For each village the Bal sabhas were organised nearly four times every month. In the beginning, the Bal sabhas met in the school campus immediately after the school time. Later on it was preferred to assemble outside the village so that the students could do their nature studies and observations. The number of students varied from just a few to about twenty-five.

Mostly the Bal Sabha met for about two hours. Some of the activities included:
o Nature observation activities and recording their observations (including drawings) in a notebook
o Gathering/finding out the traditional knowledge about vegetation of the region
o Environment-related activities and games
o Collection and exhibition of herbarium, seeds and dried vegetables
o Drawing competition
o Environment related news and features in local news paper
o Helping students in improving their reading and writing skills
o Preparation for the Camel Cart Yatra in schools

Paryavaran evam Swasthya Chetna yatra on Camel Cart
Towards the end of the year, as a culminating activity, a day-long camel cart yatra was organised with the students. The Paryavaran Bal Sabha members and other children were also informed about the Yatra and related activities. They were encouraged to prepared slogans, placards and banners with relevant messages. The path of Yatra was selected within the village, villagers were informed, arrangements were made to send Food Plant charts and other displays and activities were sent to the school on camel cart or in a bus or jeep.

The one-day programme at each school started with an early morning camel cart Chetna Yatra. Some students sat on the camel cart with colourful food plant charts; other students walked behind the camel cart with placards. In all places a few teachers and the principal / headmaster and local village youth involved with the project also joined the rally.

In most places villagers came out of their houses to enquire about the commotion in the street, some of them also enquired from the accompanying teachers and youth. In some places the Yatra stopped at the place of village elder or Sarpanch, while they addressed the children about importance of Food Plants and other related topics. This Yatra took one to two hours to complete in various villages. Afterwards, the Bal Sabha members set up an exhibition of food plant charts, medicinal plant charts, and collections of dried vegetables, seeds, plants done by children.

For more details contact:
Santosh Gupta
Centre for Environment Education
Thaltej Tekra, Ahmedabad - 380 054
Ph: 079-26858002
Email:santosh.gupta@ceeindia.org

Some Local Food plants of Thar
A wide variety of local food plants are found in the Thar area. Different areas within the Thar have different set of local foods depending upon geography and microclimate of the area. Some of these plants are described below.

Prosopis cineraria Local name : Khejri
One of the most common tree species of the region. A medium to small tree with somewhat compressed conical prickles, leaves 2 - pinnate. Flowers - spikes with small yellow flowers. Fl. & Fr. : March to June.

Food: Unripe fruits are dried and cooked as vegetable either alone or as part of other vegetables. Dried fruits are also sold commercially. The mature dried fruits are eaten. Gum of the tree is also eaten.

Calligonum polygonoides Local name : Phog, Phoglo.
A rigid, branched, almost leafless (leaves are linear, small and short-lived) shrub; Commonly found on sand-dunes in western Rajasthan; Flower pinkish; Fruit oblong, clothed with reddish-brown bristles. Fl. & Fr. : April-June.
Food: The flower – buds, locally called as “Lasson” in the desert area, are eaten by the tribals with buttermilk (whey).

Capparis decidua Local name : ker, kario, karil, karia, kair.
Leafless (except in young plants) spiny shrubs or small trees mostly found on hard surface throughout the state. Young branches are green; Flowers brick red; Fruit scarlet-red when ripe. Fl. & Fr. : March to June; sometimes also September to December.
Food: Unripe fruit is pickled and has good commercial value. They are also cooked as vegetables with the fruits of Prosopis cineraria (sangri) and seeds of Acacia Senegal (Kumat). Ripened fruits are also eaten by locals.

Cenchrus biflorus Local name: Bhurat
A tufted annual grass which has prickly husk. Common in sandy desert. Fl. & Fr. : August – December.

Food: This is known as queen of cookery grasses in the desert and people value it next only to Pennisetum ( Bajra ) due to high percentage of fat and proteins. Usually the grains are powered and made into bread – locally called ‘Khankara’. A delicious dish – locally called “Malad”, is also prepared by the locals after cooking ‘Buhrat’ flour in ‘ghee’ and adding sugar in it. Cenchrus setigerus ( Dhaman ) seeds are sometimes used as a substitute for this species. Both of these grass species also serve as good fodder for cattle.