Here’s the poster for this summer’s AHA! Express:
Do enrol your children for an enjoyable summer theatre experience!
For interviews with faculty and further information on the workshops and AHA!, do please call RangaShankara on 080-26493982
Visit their website,
Contact Us
E-mail: rstheatre@gmail.com
Website: http://www.rangashankara.org
Phone numbers: +91-80-26592777, +91-80-26493982
Address: Ranga Shankara
36/2 8th Cross II Phase J P Nagar
Bangalore 560 078
India
Posting for all children, on behalf of Hari Someshekar :
The theme for this issue of the WWF Panda Magazine is Big Cats (tiger, lion, leopard, snow leopard and so on), which we hope will be exciting and interesting for children.
Please do encourage your children/ children you know. who write/draw well, to submit their articles, experiences, stories, poems, photographs and illustrations on the topic by January 21, 2013.
We are also open to entries in regionallanguages/vernacular and would prefer submissions in soft copies
Please email entries to
hsomashekar@wwfindia.net
When there are power cuts for long periods, when money is an issue, children are happy with traditional toys, too. Here’s a video of a boy with a toy:
And here are the children, waving happily to Amith and me as we drive away!
Who knows where these children will be, in the future…right now, they are in the State, not only of Karnataka, but the universal one, of Innocence…
To understand a person, walk a mile in their shoes, goes the popular saying.
Children take that seriously….
Try to step into others’ shoes…
and do a few adjustments as well!
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Bangalore is organizing a ‘Vacation Training Program on Bio-Resources’ for students from 7th May to 26th May 2012.
Funded by Department of Bio-Technology, Government of India, this program consists of lectures and interactive sessions with eminent scientists and experts in the field of biology and bio-resources, visits to research institutes, orientation to skills required for field-biology and out-door camps. Students who have appeared in Class X examination in 2012 from recognized schools in Karnataka are eligible to apply. The application forms and other details are available on our website. Please visit http://atree.org/vtp
Last date to receive completed applications is 25th April 2012.
A message from Sangeetha Kadur:
Hello,
“GREEN SCRAPS” , Nature journaling workshop !!
We are happy to announce yet another exclusive “GreenScraps” workshop this Summer 2012 !
For all the details about the workshop,
If you need to know more about the workshop, please call the numbers
Sangeetha: 98868 12598
Shilpashree: 92414 49073
The registrations are limited to just 12 participants.
With best regards,
Shilpashree & Sangeetha Kadur
–
I have, of late, been going to the Bannerghatta Zoo to introduce schoolchildren to various animals and birds, but, of course, I never expected to see a wildlife drama straight of out of National Geographic while I was there!
At the enclosure of the King Cobra, we found that there were many Rat Snakes, as well as the King himself….and suddenly, the King decided he (I am saying he because it’s the King…but it could have been the Queen as well!) needed a meal. Quite rapidly, he attacked one of the rat snakes…which literally flew out of the vegetation into an open patch of grass in the desperate need to get away from the predator.
However, the King was in no mood to let the prey off. The two fought furiously, intertwined. Since all this was happening on the other side of some fairly close-sized metal mesh, I could not get a video of the fast-paced action. However, after swaying to and fro in an embrace of death, the two snakes fell, together, into the trench between the raised patch of vegetation, and the metal net (beyond which there was a further barrier of plants, and a railing, from where we had to watch.)
At this point, through the crowd, I was at least able to get a few photographs.
The King managed to get his fangs right into the middle of the rat snake.
The Rat Snake coiled itself around the King Cobra, and actually tried dragging the much larger snake for quite a distance, backwards, along the circular trench.
Amazed, we watched as the intensity of the death-struggle showed itself as much in the deadly stillness of this bite and embrace, as the all-over-the-place fight a few moments ago…
However, we could not wait to see if the King finally did eat his prey; we had to take the children to the other enclosures, and we left them in mortal combat..and in the embrace of death for one, and food for the other….
Here’s the signboard at the King Cobra enclosure.
“Ophiophagus” means, “one who eats snakes”….and obviously, a lot of the rat snakes have been put into the enclosure to ensure that the King Cobra can hunt, as it would do in the wild. But because the two snakes came out of the vegetation, and the incident took place out in the open, we were privileged to watch one of the raw moments of Nature, very much as it would take place in the wild….
So…never imagine that a visit to the Zoo is going to be a pleasant and humdrum affair…sometimes drama can occur there, too!
Quite unusual for me to be off for several days, as I subject myself (and the rest of you!) to the discipline of frequent post. But it was a full weekend…Saturday morning, to Hessarghatta, getting back only by 3pm and then having visitors…Sunday morning, to Valley School, back at 1pm, and then off to JLR Bannerghatta (where neither mobile phones nor 3G seems to work) to volunteer for a nature trail with 49 students of Vidya Niketan, on an overnight camp. Got back yesterday evening, and was rather tired…and today all the home chores demanded attention, so had to turn down an invitation to go on an overnight visit to Chik Yelchetti for Junglescapes work.
My photographs from Hessarghatta are on my FB album
My photos from Valley School are
And my photos from the JLR camp are
But meanwhile…I’ve been having regular conversations with a very impressive schoolgirl, Anvitha. She often raises very valid questions about wildlife conservation…and our last conservation/rescue conversation went like this:
Anvitha:
” I just wanted to ask you this question which is haunting my mind from many days. When I was coming back from Konark temple, we were passing by a sanctuary. Our auto would have run over a turtle trying to cross the road but fortunately it did not happen. After lifting and seeing it, I was ready to leave it back but the auto driver told that he is gonna keep it along wid other animals he has. I tried to convince him n leave the turtle in so many lakes we came across and even in the sea which was opposite to our guest house but he did not agree. I sometimes feel that the turtle can have a better life by being in the fish tank but at the same time I also feel that it has the right to live in wilderness. Which is correct ? and also do people eat rufous tree pie coz i saw and talked to a family who had caught it.”
My response:
“Regarding the turtle (which was probably an Indian Pond Terrapin)…it is definitely better off in the wild, than in some chlorinated water tank…but then, you really had no control over what the auto driver was going to do. Frankly….I have my doubts…it probably wound up as food for him and his family…and you have to consider that as part of the natural food chain. Anyway, fresh water turtles might die in the salt water of the sea and vice versa, so probably putting it into the sea without knowing exactly which turtle it was might not be a great idea.
Alas, most birds and animals provide a good source of meat and protein for people. We can only try and prevent its happening…very often we have no say in the matter. Once I rescued an injured Pond Heron which a family was eyeing. The bird died in the rescue shelter the next day…I wished I had at least let the family eat a proper meal. So…one has to accept that rescue is not always possible, or even the best thing in the circumstances. Life teaches us some hard lessons sometimes….difficult for a soft heart like yours to accept.”
And her reply:
“thanx for the advice. Actually I told the family to leave the poor bird n they left it once but just when we were returning a small gal from the same family again easily caught the bird and so I thought the bird was used to the family or something like that.”
I do wish there were many more Anvithas around! A child so sensitive to the beings around her…may her tribe increase!
I was delighted to take 15 children of Sindhi School, Malleswaram, to my favourite zoo area in the Bannerghatta National Park. Subbalakshmi, a teacher in the school, enthuses the children and organizes nature trails for them entirely on her own initiative…the school does not take any responsibility. Even the van was hired by her! More power to her and may her tribe increase!
Here are the children, posing with the Kids For Tigers poster:
For the photographs from the outing,on my Facebook album,
One of the very interesting things the children spotted on the outing was this caterpillar:
I asked my nature Guru,
whether the caterpillar was carrying some eggs…and he, and
Saptarshi, a wildlife friend on Facebook, had a very interesting story to tell.
This caterpillar, apparently, is carrying the Load of Death!
(click on the name to find out more about these wasps)
apparently select caterpillars, and lay their eggs on them; the larvae, when they hatch, feed on the caterpillar, and form small cocoons on the body of the caterpillar…that’s what we saw, above!
The amazing things that happen in Nature are infinite….
I’ve been interested in, and involved with,
a daycare and children’s activity centre, for a while now, since I did a project with the children about trees. And having done the
a little while ago, I wanted to take the children there, too; so this morning, Viji and I rounded up some children and off we went!
We started at the Brigade Millenium arch entrance:
And as we went, I pointed out various interesting things to them. Here they are, keenly observing a grasshopper!
The children were full of curiosity…their sentences always seem to end in either question marks or exclamation marks! We were joined by
Usha Rajagopalan of the Puttenahalli Neighbourhood Lake Improvement Trust
who, with her band of tireless volunteers, has been maintaining the lake…and saving it from almost-certain disaster.
They looked at various insects, trees (that PNLIT has planted, and others, too) and birds…and Usha explained various things about the lake.
She gave each child a pencil to write or sketch with (several of the children were already writing down what they saw, or sketching it!), and I asked everyone to pose for a group photo:
Here are some of the birds we saw:
Coot, Common
Cormorant, Little
Crow, House
Crow, Jungle
Duck, Spot-billed
Egret, Cattle
Egret, Little
Garganey
Heron, Pond
Heron, Purple
Jacana, Pheasant-tailed
Kingfisher, White-breasted
Kite, Common (Pariah)
Moorhen, Purple
Munia, Scaly-breasted
Mynah, Common
Waterhen, White-breasted
Here is the
PURPLE MOORHEN:
and the
PHEASANT-TAILED JACANA:
We wound up with a lovely breakfast of Uthappam and coconut chutney, delicious after the sunny walk!
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