RID POVERTY & HUNGER IN 50 INDIAN TRIBAL VILLAGES

Nov & December 2011 Activities –Environment Education Programme in Schools

One day Organic Awareness Program for new Eco club students (6^th STD)

I.  Video show on slow-poisoning of India: An Audio visual documentary CD was shown to all the 6th STD Eco club students from the following Schools: 

1. Kilkowatty School
2. Odaikadu School  
3. Adasolai School
4. Doddabetta School
5. Glenmorgan School
6. Karancy School
7. Attadi School
8. Bandisolai School
9. Sogathorai School
10. Thenalai School
11. Kollimalai School
12. Kil Kundha School
13. Araihatty School 

• The documentary talks of the excessive use of chemicals, chiefly pesticides in Indian farming and how it has led to various issues.
• It takes us to one particular area in KERALA- Kasaragode where Endosulphan was sprayed on the cashew crops aerially without any proper preparation of the villages and the villagers.
• This resulted in horrifying effects on the population of the area, namely various birth defects like mental retardation, cancer, cerebral palsy, congenital diseases etc. The chemical affected the central nervous systems of children as well caused deaths due to cancer.
• The documentary also explained how the excessive use of pesticides is not only deteriorating the soil and water but is also finding its way into our food, which is slowly poisoning us.
• One of the best solutions for this according to the film is the use of herbicides and other organic methods.
• The documentary awakened us to a very different and disturbing picture which can be and in fact is fatal for many. When we shop for our food, we hardly give a through to the amount of pesticides and other chemicals it man contain.
• This documentary educates us about the same in a simple yet effective way. The documentary impacted many children very deeply; particularly when they saw how Endosulphan pesticides darken the lives of many young children. It was a great platform for initiating organic farming at the school level.

II. Basic Information about Global warming & Green House Effect was given to the following schools:

1. Kilkowatty School
2. Odaikadu School  
3. Adasolai School
4. Doddabetta School
5. Glenmorgan School
6. Karancy School
7. Attadi School
8. Bandisolai School
9. Sogathorai School
10. Thenalai School
11. Kollimalai School
12. Kil Kundha School
13. Araihatty School

• Global Warming is the long term average rise in near Earth surface temperatures – basically it means that the atmosphere is getting hotter. Climate Change is something slightly different although they are often confused; CC refers to the effects of global warming and not to the warming itself.
• Global warming has two causes – nature and humans. In the past every warming and cooling event has been due to natural causes and the role of greenhouse gases has been an essential one in determining our climate. It's these gases that trap heat with Earth's atmosphere and keep it at a habitable temperature, they're effectively the planet's insulation, without which we'd all be dead (no greenhouse effect would mean Earth would be too cold for life to have ever evolved).
• The problem is that when we increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere the insulative effect increases; it's a physical impossibility for it not to do so.
• Nature can process a certain amount of greenhouse gases each year and if we reduced our emissions to a sustainable level then all would be fine, the trouble is that we're currently producing 14 times the amount of greenhouse gases that nature can handle and all this excess is accumulating in the atmosphere (it has nowhere else to go).
• To prevent any further global warming we would need to either reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases so dramatically that it would be like stepping back in time by 200 years or we need to find a) alternative energy sources or b) ways to remove the surplus gases from the atmosphere.

III. Comparative analysis of Organic and Shola forests & Video show on Private life of Plants for following Schools:

1. Kilkowatty
2. Odaikadu
3. Adasolai
4. Doddabetta
5. Glenmorgan
6. Karancy
7. Attadi
8. Bandisolai
9. Sogathorai
10. Thenalai
11. Kollimalai
12. Kil Kundha
13. Araihatty

Through talks, discussions and the video, students learned all about:

• Soil health of natural forests
• Nature’s way of Mulching
• Water-holding capacity of the soil, diversity of the plant species and animal species in the forest ecosystem
• Preliminary study on the enumerated grassland species
• The impact of monoculture (Eucalyptus, Acacia, Pine etc) and invasive species on the natural forests and soil

Links:

• Earth Trust Nilgiris, India