Agasthya 5.2 Track and Text

The intention of producing the nature guide ‘Treasures on Tiger Tracks’ was to create awareness of biodiversity among the local people, especially children living in the KMTR buffer area. In order to further this, we designed a monitoring programme involving school children, teachers and anyone who is interested in nature and natural history. The uniqueness of this monitoring programme is that the reports will be sent to a common database over SMS which eliminates paper work and the need to access internet. The idea evolved over discussions around removing barriers that are in the way of reporting observations. With mobile phones penetrating even the remotest village, the use of SMS seemed like the most practical option.

On June 11th and 12th, a reconnaissance workshop was conducted to train school teachers on making observations and reporting through SMS. The participants included 9 teachers in charge of eco-clubs in their respective schools, the Chief Environment Officer who oversees the activities of environment education in schools and about 5 other naturalists from the landscape. The enthusiasm with which the teachers participated was overwhelming. The excitement of learning to identify birds and plants quickly caught on among the teachers as they transformed into wonder-struck students during the weekend. At the end of the workshop, they provided us some valuable feedback which will be incorporated in developing the programme further. They are now geared to take this programme to their schools while we await the children’s response. If you have any ideas, suggestions or experience to share, please feel free to write to us.