Recommendations for next year's Campaign

Here's a List of Recommendations made by ATREE's KMTR Team to ensure that next year the event will be even more effective

1. Better co-ordination between of the Forest Department and the Police and Municipality and ATREE in implementing the ban

2. Volunteers to be selected more rigorously

3. Advertising about the ban in local newspapers

4. Stop distribution of bit notices inside the reserve which adds to the garbage.

5. Urge people to throw plastic and organic waste in separate bins. A fine should be imposed on the offenders.

6. It should be made mandatory for shopkeepers to keep bins. The Forest Department or the Temple Trust could facilitate this by bringing the bins to the site and renting them out to the shopkeepers.

7. Shop keepers should not be allowed to use, sell or give away plastic bags and plastic cups. They should also arrange for bins outside their shops. License should be issued only on this condition. Offenders should be fined or their license should be cancelled depending on the extent of violation.

8. There should be more firewood depots. This year, firewood was sold only at a single depot and was not enough to meet the demand. People also found the fire wood at the depot expensive. This led to collection of firewood from the forest.

9. The police should be involved in enforcing the ban. For this, better communication and co-ordination required. This year the Police were unaware of the order.

10. Mandatory fine should be imposed at the check post for carrying plastic and liquor. Though the police checked for liquor bottles this year, they not treat carrying of plastic as a violation of law.

11. The temple authorities should provide permanent dust bins and undertake proper waste disposal.

12. There should be a regulation on the number of days people can camp within the sanctuary.

13. Screening of movies and songs on a large screen should not be allowed.

14. A working committee with executive members from ATREE, Forest Department and the Temple Samsthanam should be formed which should work towards implementing the ban well in advance.

15. Support for Volunteers especially for women/girls in terms of a clean mess, water and toilet facilities should be provided.

16. More attention should be given to Banathirtham and other temples where garbage is beginning to accumulate. It is better to curtail it at this early stage.

Attention! Animal Welfare NGOs!

Here's an issue that needs immediate action!

In the recently concluded temple festival at KMTR, goats were killed. Animal sacrifice in temples is an issue that animal welfare NGOs need to take up on priority basis and launch a campaign to stop the practice immediately.

Here are the names of the team members who made the KMTR campaign a big success

Dr. M. Soubadra Devy
Dr. T. Ganesh
Dr. R. Ganesan
Adithya Bhaskaran
Ganesan.V
Jahnavi Pai
Johnson
Joseph Antony
Kottai Muthu.R
Mathivanan.M
Merlin Gnana Jeeva
Paramesh
Peramuthu
Rajkamal Goswami
Savitha Swamy
Tamil AzhaganGreen Brigade, ATREE



Here's a big thank you from ATREE's KMTR Team

To the following corporates, commercial establishments, organizations, educational institutions, and individuals without whom the campaign would not have been possible.

CONTRIBUTORS
Lions Club, Ambasamudram
M.K.V.K Tiles, Pavoorchatram
Pensioners Association, Ambasamudram
RMZ Constructions, Bangalore
Rotary Club, Ambasamudram
Rotary Club, Tirunelveli
Sabeena Auto Agency, Vickiramasingapuram
Selvarani Jawli Stores, Alankulam
Singampatti Samasthanam
Sivagami Gold Station, Tirunelveli
Subburaju Cotton Mills, Tirunelveli
Tamil Nadu Forest Department – Eco Development wing
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation, Papanasam
TREE Trust Kallidaikurchi

INDIVIDUALS
Mr. Esakki Saravanan, President, Rotary Club, Ambasamudram
Sri Sankarasubramanian, Correspondent, Tilak Vidyalaya Hr. Sec. School, Kallidaikurichi
Mr. Sivasailam, Headmaster, Theerthapathi Hr. Sec. School, Ambasamudram
Mr. Sundaramahalingam, NSS Coordinator, Theerthapathi Hr. Sec. School, Ambasamudram

VOLUNTEERS
Ambai Arts College, Ambasamudram
Green Brigade, ATREE, Singampatti
Sri. Paramakalyani College, Alwarkurichi
St. Mary’s Hr. Sec. School, Vickiramasingapuram
Ms. P. Muthukumari, South Papankulam
Theerthapathi Hr. Sec. School, Ambasamudram
Thiruvalluvar College, Papanasam
Tilak Vidyalaya Hr. Sec. School, Kallidaikurichi
Ms. Veera Raghavan, Kallidaikurichi
Mr. Yohann , Paris, France

MEDIA SUPPORT
Arumbugal Trust, Tirunelveli
Daily Thanthi
Dinakaran
Dinamalar
Dinamani
Jeniffer T.V., Alangulam
Nellai T.V., Vickiramasingapuram
Suryan F.M., Tirunelveli
Thendral T.V., Vickiramasingapuram
Win TV, Tirunelveli

SPECIAL THANKS TO
Sri. T. N. S. Murugadas Tirthapathi, Raja of Singampatti
Mr. A. Ramkumar, Field Director, KMTR
District Superintendent of Police, Ambasmudram
Mr. S. Armugam, Manager, Gold Station, Tirunelveli
Ms. Kritika Ganesh, RJ, Suryan FM
Mr. Saleem, Kallidaikurichi
Mr. Sridhar, Manager, HPCL Tirunelveli
Mr. Gokul Srinivasan, Tirunelveli

2007 Nobel Prize jointly shared by Al Gore and IPCC Chairman Rajendra Pachouri

Get the full story here at :http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/press.html

Earlier this year, doctoral researcher at ATREE, Dharavala L.Kothavala had interviewed Al Gore.
You can listen to the interview here at: http://www.kcsb.org/?p=328

Karnataka FD organizes, ' Run for Wildlife'

The Karnataka Forest Department organized a "Run for Wildlife" event yesterday. Participants included school and college students and senior citizens too. The run was from Gopala Gowda Circle, near Vidhana Soudha, to Lalbagh. To know more about this event, check out: http://www.hindu.com/2007/10/08/stories/2007100860021100.htm

Lantana Mela is on at MM Hills on Oct 6th.

Lantana camara was once a troublesome weed that colonized nearly 60% of the forest land in MM hills. Also known as Spanish flag, the plant is a native of South America.

Sustained efforts made by ATREE’s Conservation and Livelihoods team have helped transform Lantana from a disturbing weed to a utility plant. Working with Lantana camara has become an attractive livelihood option for the Soligas as well as other tribal communities.

Perhaps you may want to spend this Saturday meeting with the craftspeople and seeing for yourself the lovely works of art and craft that can be made with Lantana.

Lantana camara is a tough, hardy plant which thrives well in low rainfall conditions and is not affected by bugs or microbes. To know more about the Lantana initiative at ATREE, you can check out this link: http://www.atree.org/lantana_confl_07.html

Here's the agenda for the Lantana Mela

11.00 am: Invocation by Divyajyothi members

11.30 am: Laying of Foundation stone for Community-based Conservation Centre, MM Hills
by Mrs Parimala Nagappa, MLA, Hannur - Chief Guest

11.40 pm: Distribution of certificates to the Lantana Craftspeople

13.00 pm: Lunch

14.30 pm: An interaction session with the Craftspeople

15.30 pm: Field trip

19.00: Cultural program: Janapada geethegalla nruthyarupaka by Soliga artisans and Adima Kala Shale, Kolar

Event Organizers : Lantana Craft Centre (LCC), Divyajyothi SHG (Self Help Group)Federation, University of Agricultural Science, Bangalore and ATREE.

ATREE's Rural CE Workshop on Oct 9th

Dear Friends,

Attached is the notice for the Rural CE workshop on October 9th, 2007 at ATREE. The primary focus of the workshop will be to look at the existing CE (conservation education) initiatives in our field sites, and see how best we can come up with a CREATIVE ASSESSMENT PLAN for each of these areas. Each team will ideally share with the group what they think needs to be done and this can be consolidated into an overall plan.

The assessment itself while looking at Conservtion Education in particular will also build up baseline information that will help us plan further CE work in each of these areas. We look forward to your presentations (please feel free to use any format to present) and the kite flying that will follow. Both Gladwin and I are looking forward to veering away from the usual questionnaire type of assessments and would like to make it as experiential and hands-on as possible. We will all need to pitch in to decide how best we take this forward.

Please bring along anything (non-textual material, photos, art work, crafts, seeds etc) or written material that will help in building up our plan. If there are any clarifications or pre-workshops discussions you need, please do get in touch with me.

A line confirming who will participate will be appreciated. I am also sending this to some of our Urban CE folks with the request that they also attend if interested.

Thanks and regards,
Sunita

Member and Programme Coordinator,
Kalpavriksh, Pune & Adjunct Fellow,
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE),
Bangalore, India

Here's our tentative agenda for the meeting on October 9th, 2007


10.00 am: Introduction to the meeting

Expected outcomes/outputs including the assessment methodology

Gladwin and Sunita

10.30 to 13.00: Presentations by teams from ATREE’s 6 CCC field sites (with CE as the focus)

o KMTR: Soubhadra/Ganesh/Savitha
o Natham: Sarvanan
o Kanakpura: Kavitha
o MM Hills: Kannan
o BR Hills: Siddappa/Sunita
o Vembanad: Priyan/Jojo

Each presentation can be about 15 minutes long followed by a discussion that is within the context of the purpose of this meeting, and will lay the way for the afternoon discussions.

Moderator: Gladwin

13.00 to 13.45 pm: Lunch

13.45 pm: “Generating a creative assessment methodology for CE”- Gladwin/Sunita
14.30 to 16.00 pm: Group discussions and presentations on what each site team would ideally like to have as an assessment plan.

Moderator: Gladwin

16.00-17.00 pm: Wrap up and consolidation (work plan, task list, team)

Tiny frog discovered in Western Ghats

A stamp sized frog has been discovered by S D Biju and colleagues, researchers at the University of Delhi. The team have named the frog, Nyctibatrachus minimus. Get to know more about this fascinating discovery here at: http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/sep252007/854.pdf

Invitation to Jalpaadom

Dear Readers,

I am very happy to invite you all for the formal inauguration of ‘Jalpaadom’. Jalapaadom is a unique environmental educational program designed for the students in Vembanad backwater region, Alappuzha, Kerala. Jalpaadom is an initiative of the Vembanad conservation program of ATREE.

Kerala's Minister of Education, Mr. MA Baby, has agreed to inaugurate the program
and Mr. KC Venugopal, MLA will preside over the function.

The program schedule is outlined below:
10.30 am - Prayer

10.35 am- Welcome Address

10.40 am: Briefing on Jalapaadom : Mr Jojo T.D. (Jalapaadom Program Officer)

10.50 am: Presidential Address: Shri K.C. Venugopal (MLA)

11.05 am: Inaugural Address: Shri M.A. Babay (Minister of Education and Culture)

11.25 am: Official Logo Release : Mr Shivasankar M, IAS (Director of Public Instructions,
Kerala)

11.40 am: Release of Resource Materials: Shri P. Nazar, President, District Panchayat,
Alappuzha

11.50 am: Felicitations: Shri P.P. Chitaranjan, Municipal Chairman, Alappuzha
Dr Ravi Chellam, Director, ATREE
Shri K.C. Dayal, Environmentalist

12.15 pm: Vote of Thanks: Dr Latha Bhaskar

Place and time: YMCA Hall, Alappuzha at 10.30am, 4th October 2007

If you wish to attend this event, please contact Shali (shali@atree.org) for the details and for making arrangements.

Thanks

Priyadarsanan Dharma Rajan, PhD

Fellow Scientist, Insect Taxonomy and Conservation
Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE)
#659, 5th A main, Hebbal, Bangalore - 560 024, India.

Ph:91-80-23530069/23533942/23638771(R) 91-80-23535287;
Fax: 91-80-23530070
Other ID: priyadarsanan@gmail.com
url: www.atree.org/priyan.html