It was the month of June and Environment was the catch word of the public. Hot debates and discussions about the environmental issues of our PLANET EARTH were on a high because of the World Environment Day celebrated on June 5th. This is the only time when people talk about Environmental status of the PLANET EARTH. Politicians and the press focus upon the Environment and feel sorry for the Health of the Planet. In order to show their concern a whole range of activities are undertaken by the government and the public. A lot of them are merely verbal and without anything materializing at the end. Various contests for the children like painting, elocution and quiz are the commonest.
Occasionally we come across people perceiving something different. Our friend Satish of Kadashettyhalli had a different plan altogether. Being an elected representative of the Kadaba Gramapanchayat in Gubbi Taluk of Tumkur District, he had initiated a Biodiversity Monitoring committee in his Panchyat, a feat carried out only by a couple of Gramapanchayath in the country. Manu and Hemanth were also involved in the process and had conducted a workshop for the Teachers. They had formed about twenty school biodiversity clubs with the limits of the Panchayath which were supposed to be serviced by the Mysore Amateur Naturalists on a bi- monthly basis. The Program was sponsored by the Biodiversity Board of the State and Satish was looking forward to rope in the Karnataka State Pollution control board (KSPCB) in the year's World Environment Day celebrations. With some discussions we hammered out a joint venture to make the week long celebrations colorful and spread out.
A week long Environmental Awareness Campaign was held for the entire cluster of Govt. schools in the Kadaba Grama Panchayat limits. Manu and Hemanth were part of the campaign and went there as resource persons for the campaign. Manu suggested utilizing this golden opportunity to field test our material. We immediately agreed upon the suggestion since there was very little time left time for us to carry out the Black buck Education program. Kumar & Mahesh who were the principal investigators joined the team the very next day.
For six days between the 5th and 11th June there was a festive mood in the schools. As we travelled from school to school conducting education programs, the Mobile unit of the KSPCB too came, anchoring itself in the school compound or any suitable place within the village. The huge white bus with colorful paintings all over attracted the entire village to the school premises. The village folk really were eager to see the elephant in the Bus! Someone had spread a rumor that the bus had an elephant calf that strayed into Mysore city recently. There were some onlookers who even thought it must be some beneficial scheme of the Government that intended to distribute some thing to the public free of cost.
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| A PCB Staff explaining about alternate fuels. |
The Extendable side walls were opened and the staff of the KSPCB had to stand beside to explain that there were no elephants on the bus nor were they in the village to distribute anything. They had a tough time in explaining the themes show cased on the bus. There was the fuel issue, water issue and the Mining issues.
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| Kumar delebrating about the Black bucks. |
Kumar and Mahesh made use of this unique opportunity to field test the material generated. They had the privilege of two batches of fifty students each with whom they spent a whole day. The workshops were conducted in two batches at the Gramapanchayath office Auditorium at Kadaba. The slide show, booklet and suggested activities were all tested and they did show the expected results. However the interaction with the students enabled us to rectify some colloquial terms and the font sizes in the material which otherwise would have posed glitches.
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| Hemanth conducting an awareness game. |
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| Manu exchanging stories with kids. |
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| Satish speaking to the children. |
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