Wildlife week celebration by KANS in Hosur Forest Division

Day 01, 09/10/2010 - Nature Camp

As part of the wildlife week festivities, KANS conducted a nature camp for the students of Sishya and Titan School, Hosur at Aiyur eco-awareness camp.

The idea behind conducting this camp was to bring into sharp focus of the students the area of Melagiri, its history, diversity and to bring into them a sense of responsibility to protect this 1480 sq km area of forest cover falling into Krishnagiri district.

The students, a total of 9 each from the 2 schools were picked up from the Sishya School. On reaching Aiyur they were immediately taken to a short walk on the road leading to the Samieri lake from the camp. During the walk the students were made to listen to the various sounds of the forest and appreciate the diversity of creature that have made these forests their home. The students were briefed about spiders, birds, trees and the various animals that are found.

After breakfast the group of 10 students randomly picked trekked into the Manchi trails. The trek that began at 10am wrapped up at 2pm. The students prepared a checklist of all the birds , animals, butterflies they encountered. The students also learned to identify the animals by their pug marks, birds by their calls and flight pattern and butterflies by their patterns and colours.

They were intrigued by the call of Iora and Coucal and were enraptured by the beautiful Blue mormon, lemon and yellow-orange tip butterflies. The guide who is a local gave them an insight into the medicinal properties of the herbs and trees we saw on the trail. By the end of the trek, which covered a distance of around 6-8 kms the students could identify a lot of species and were ever more excited and repeatedly asked for continuing such camps. They realized that forests are inviolate parts of our existence, that their preservation is a must and took a bold stand of spreading this new awareness they gained.

After the lunch, sitting in a circle both the groups recounted their experiences and later we headed out to the view-point of the Spider valley, where Sanjeev, vice president of KANS talked to them into length about Kenneth Anderson, the Indian born Scottish hunter who once roamed these very forests hunting the man-eating tigers and leopards and rogue elephants, the former glory of Melagiris, how KANS came into being and how the students could help KANS conserve these forests. 

The students were encouraged to form groups at their school under the guidance of their principal and Sanjeev, which would then be directly involved in surveying the Melagiri in small batches. With the infusion the younger generation closer home, who feel a sense of belonging and responsibility towards these forests, Melagiris is bound to bounce back to  the state it was 40-50 years back.

The group then headed towards the Sameeri lake and patiently waited for more than an hour until darkness fell with silence, to catch a glimpse of the elephants. Unfortunately perhaps because of the rains they chose not to visit the lake.

Finally we wrapped up the camp with a 40 min sojourn into the secret life of Tigers and the conservation value and issues surrounding them by screening the movie 'Truth about Tigers' by Shekar Dattatri.

Day 02, 10/10/2010 - Painting Competition, theme - Wildlife

A total of nearly 10 schools in and around participated in the painting competition with a turnover of 467 students in the groups of LKG to 2nd, 3rd to 5th, 6th to 7th and 8th to 10th.

The painting competition took place at St. Joseph's higher secondary school in Hosur and jointly conducted by KANS, HRT and HLC.

The theme of the competition was wildlife and an entry fee of 20 INR was collected. The enthusiasm among the kids was electrifying, from 9.30 to 11.30 the students poured out paints into their sheets and drew, painted and munched on the snacks provided. The registration and handling the students was organized such that it was ensured that each student was escorted back by their own guardian. The panel of judges consisting of Mr.Jaganathan (Art Master, Goverment Boys High school), Mrs.Usha Rani Sridhar ( Civil Engg. BITS Pilani, trained in fine arts and conducts classes in Hosur), Mr.Gowri Shankar ( Drawing master fromTitan watches) and Mr.S.Shiva( Drawing master, winner of top 30 WGC jewellery designers and founder of March Arts Foundation ,Hosur elected a 1,2 and 3rd prices plus 5 consolation prizes in each category.

And the team..