Global Warming Awareness Program at Nalanda School

Cheerful students, wonderfully supportive staff and complete co-operation and interest by FD more or less summarises the  Global Warming Awareness Program KANS conducted at Nalanda School, Krishnagiri on 4th December 2010.

The first programme was tree plantation by the students of various classes. The students and class teachers showed keen interest in planting the 120 saplings arranged by Mr. Thillairasan with support from Mr. Palanisamy, Range Officer, Interface Forestry Range. This takes the total number of saplings planted in Krishnagiri region to 1620! Range Officer Mr. Shivaji, who was the Chief Guest for the event explained to all of us what each sapling is and what all are its uses.

Next, we all moved to the mini-theatre and Laxmeesha gave a presentation on Global Warming. He explained the problem in simple terms for the students and also suggested small but effective steps to fight the issue.

This was followed by the screening of Shekar Dattatri's The Truth About Tigers. Those collective gasps during the 'violent' parts of the video (tiger's hunt and man's poaching) and the soft giggles when the video was showing the playful tiger cubs is a huge encouragement to extend this activity to other schools as well. Later, on seeing the English version of Truth About Tigers, Mr. Shivaji asked us for the Tamil version to show everyone at FD and we promised we will get a copy of it and send it across.

And, these cheerful faces were the best part of the event.

Rest of the pictures can be found here in our photo-stream: http://picasaweb.google.com/ka.naturesociety

First bird watching session by KANS

Twenty five students each from Sishya school and Titan school attended the first session of bird watching conducted by KANS on 28th november 2010. These sessions have been initiated to familiarise the students with the many species of birds that have made their home in and around Hosur and its forests. The students will also be educated about the behaviour and conservation of the  migratory birds that visit during the winter months.  KANS intends to conduct one session every month for the students from Hosur with the cooperation of school authorities who will appoint one teacher in each school for these activities.

The following activities were carried out:
1. A Slide Show on Common and endangered birds of India was presented by by Mr. Guruprasad Timmapur, a member of KANS at Titan School.  He also spoke about  the various services such as pollination and pest control performed by birds in general and also about some of the superstitions surrounding some of the birds.

2. The presentation was followed by a bird watching session at Sanamavu reserve forest on the outskirts of Hosur. The students, with the help of KANS members were broken into several groups and identified many common birds found in this scrub jungle. 

3. Finally a discussion was held with the children and they were given assignments to identify the birds in their neighborhood.
  

Deepa Mohan, who volunteered for the Bird watching session at Hosur gives us a photographic guide to the events that unfolded on the day here - http://deponti.livejournal.com/747580.html