Green Grass And Blue Skies

It’s a reaction that gladdens and kindles hope in Aniruddha Mookerjee, conservationist and director of the Wildlife Trust of India who has been organising such camps for almost a year now. Mookerjee conceived Earth Camps in September ’04 as an organisation that would facilitate an interface between school students and the environment and give them first-hand knowledge of life sciences, biodiversity, conservation and coexistence.

Earth Camp’s motto springs from the idiom of experiencing biomes or places where the elements life can be observed in combination—like climate, soil, the dominant varieties of flora and fauna and the interdependence amongst forms of life and habitation. The programme involves taking small groups of students on short trips—seven to ten days—to one of the six biomes of India. For a feel and study of marine systems, children will be taken to a seaside village near the Gulf of Kutch; the Nandadevi national park for an experience of temperate and alpine ecosystem; select villages of Ladakh and Jodhpur for studying a cold and hot desert ecosystem respectively; the rainforests of Kerala and the mangroves at Sunderban, a tiger habitat near Corbett for observing life in a deciduous habitat and Tolma in Uttaranchal for mountainous terrain.

Madhu Bhatnagar, head of environment, Shri Ram Schools, says, "This is the best learning experience for students that takes them away from boring textbook routines and I find children are ready converts to the cause of the environment and conservation". But Mookerjee does not merely want to serve the elite schools. He has already taken underpriviliged children on these eco-tours. His idea is that the money collected from children from elite schools should subsidise the trips of those less fortunate.

Mookerjee has been actively interacting with school children as part of his lectures on environment and conservation in educational institutions. He observes that while young students especially in urban areas are aware of conservation, they often lack practical and tactile knowledge of the natural world. Earth Camps try to meet this requirement. "We make students trek past salt fields by the sea, and lead them to the nearby salt processing factories that package salt to the markets for a feel of how industry, lifestyle, occupation and nature are interlinked," he says. Depending on the travel involved, costs for camps could begin at Rs 2,000.

Mookerjee continues to entreat upon school teachers and principals in and around Delhi about the importance of such trips. The Earth Camp module includes taking students from classes VI onwards on trips annually and they would stay in touch with the camps for a period of four years. "The idea is that when students leave school, they would have a more holistic knowledge of India’s biodiversity, conservation and even team management practices," says Mookerjee.

Earth Camps schedule programmes that are also in tune with the school curriculum. Sarita Mathur, head of The Shri Ram School, Gurgaon, which has tied up with Earth Camps, says, "For city children, these trips facilitate interaction with rural communities and learning from habitats in their natural forms."

"Students from all levels of society would benefit from such experiences," says Mookerjee. He hopes to convince more schools to link up with his effort. In fact, he plans to build a trust for securing funds to take underprivileged students on Earth Camps trips.

Contact: Earth Camps, U 26, B-3, DLF-Phase III, Gurgaon 122002.