Conservation Education ~ Buildling on existing platforms

In course of our conservation education ~ awareness programmes with Donbosco school we have nurtured an amiable rapport with concerned teachers. One fine day one of them came saying that an exhibition was planned at Saiha and the onus of representing the school fell on his shoulders; besides Donbosco being the host had to do well. This was the SCERT annual science exhibition and he asked me to suggest possible avenues of participating in an apt fashion. We read the document together and it immediately struck me that we could work under the theme “Conservation of Natural Resources”. This also would tantamount to taking our programme with Donbosco to the next stage. It also occurred to me was what while I have been talking of generating synergies with state agencies as also working in a reactive mode; this was a god sent opportunity.

a pair of Hoolock gibbons as depicted by the team

We discussed undertaking a survey focusing on Hoolock gibbons in Saiha involving a small group of students and sharing of the process ~ findings as the model we would display in the exhibition. The survey, which would reveal people’s awareness and perception of this rare primate, would have multiple choice questions (on lines of our earlier programme) and be undertaken within Saiha town. Few phone calls and a meeting later we had 50 copies of the questionnaire and an outline of the method lay in front of us. Time at disposal being short the survey began.

keeping Hoolock gibbons as pets is a big threat, a month before the exhibition the team had come across one freshly taken as pet in Saiha.

We then met at the school to collate the findings. Students had done a neat job, from writing the numbers on each questionnaire to getting the crux of the findings, and I rediscovered the virtue of non-interference. Since the questionnaires were filled using 2 languages depending on the respondent we took note of all the responses after translating the ones in Mizo to English. In course of this we discussed the experience of the students and I realized that while they were enthused none of them had seen a Hoolock gibbon. In the next preparatory meeting I screened the film “A Hunter’s Tale” to enable them to see the Hoolock gibbon, hear it and get a glimpse of where it lived. This would make it easier for them to talk of the primate. After this we set out to discuss how we would share the findings, the charts we would display and the design of posters. At this stage we realized that we had not coined a name for our project and subsequent scratching of our heads resulted in the project title being “Pride of Maraland”.

the exhibition in progress during 25th, 26th and 27th March 2009.

A day before the event when we were allotted space to showcase our project I went to the school to give my limited inputs in last minute fine tuning. We discussed the need to clean the space as also the height at which we would put up the posters. We also got some copies of the questionnaire and the “process” ready in case people attending wanted to know more. The team was busy with the ongoing registrations of the event; schools from all over the state were participating.

a graph depicting the survey findings, only 75% of the respondents were aware to the colour of the primate being black (3); the other options (1 and 2) were red and white.

While we were not selected for the national level exhibition we had achieved what we had set to do and had achieved well. We got students involved in an action of conservation education ~ awareness by way of doing surveys and collating the findings, this was a step ahead of our regular interactions with them where in most cases they received information. We got to know how people perceived Hoolock gibbons in a district which has troops in the primate in community owned lands and which is referred to as having the best remaining rainforests in north eastern India. And most importantly we spread two critical messages to students of almost all schools in Saiha who attended the exhibition; that Hoolock gibbons need to be conserved and there are efforts ongoing , towards this, in Saiha by way of conservation education ~ awareness.

Thanking the teachers, students in the team and Donbosco school Saiha.

Also thanking Kalyan Varma and Aparajita Datta for sharing the film and Zoo Outreach Organization for sharing material on Hoolock gibbon.

This post has also found space in Zoo Print Magazine and is available at http://www.zoosprint.org/ZooPrintMagazine/2009/July/21-25.pdf