Wednesday, January 9, 2008

08Jan2008: A day well spent (at Kalimpong)




ATREE (Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment), Darjeeling (supported by the Ministry of Environment and Forests) has organized a 30 day Vacation Program on Natural Resources for school children. The children are camping at the Agri-Horticulture Demo Farm run by the Cluny Sisters, at Pudung, Kalimpong and under the charge of Ms Reena Chhetri of Darjeeling. 34 children from schools in Darjeeling and Kalimpong are attending the program.

Reena had given me a one day slot for the landslide awareness workshop and the day began at 0900hrs with a power point presentation in the class room. Thereafter, after an early lunch, the entire day was spent visiting a number of landslide zones in and around Kalimpong in 3 vehicles hired for the purpose.

The children interacted with affected people, saw for themselves the devastation caused by the Sep2007 rains and were shown jhora training work.Both in and out of the class room many, many issues relating to climate change and protection of the environment were discussed. All in all the children enjoyed themselves.

However, besides the enjoyment factor, I am satisfied that at the end of the day I left behind 34 young ambassadors of savethehills who are aware of the fragility of our beautiful mountains and the urgent need to protect it.

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4 comments:

  1. Uttam09 January, 2008 21:08

    Its a great pleasure to know about the organisation and its activities....The first step towards savings the hills would be make the public aware about the ecological bomb that is ticking in the himalayan belt...even better that the public are young children....The biggest reason that the public is ignorant about such issues in our hills is because they are not aware of the consequences of the ecological damages and that their own life is in danger. I am quite optimistic that the reach of "Save the hills will spread further" and generate more awareness among the public...Good Wishes

    ReplyDelete
  2. Unknown10 January, 2008 06:16

    thank u for your comment.
    i gather that u r from delhi. any contribution from u on this blogsite is most, most welcome...
    do send me photographs, articles etc by email

    ReplyDelete
  3. Unknown14 January, 2008 09:59

    Myself Dr. S K Shah, presently in Lucknow and doing research on past climate change analysis mostly in Himalayan region.
    I want to convey my best wishes for the activity you and your organisation is doing in Hill region. Basically I am from Kalimpong so when I read the articles in www.darjeelingtimes.com regarding the Vacation Program on Natural Resources for school children in Kalimpong I was really fasinated with the idea and activities.
    with kind regards and best wishes
    for the great success of your organisation.
    Santosh K. Shah

    ReplyDelete
  4. SaveTheHills31 January, 2008 18:42

    Dr Shah,
    Kindly accept my apologies for the delayed response.
    I would like to thank you for the time you spent going thru the website and for posting your comments.
    Would you please let me know yr email address so that I can get in touch with you?
    regards

    ReplyDelete

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