My Jungle - Participatory Forest Conservation

We are thankful to our donors for promoting nature conservation work and spreading the word within their networks. GlobalGiving platform helps us to reach the donors and build a chain of nature conservators.

Purchase of nature

• Sahyadri's team is committed to look for a suitable place for "My Jungle" project in Ratnagiri district. All proposals are being vetted by our legal and ecology experts. As always, Sahydri shall report any short listed / finalized proposals to the donors.

Awareness Drives

During this period, Sahyadri has used following avenues to reach private forest owners, trusts owning sacred groves and the respective village level committee members.

• Under the guidance of Mr. Deshmukh, President ARTI, Pune and Krishi Bhushan Mr. Chandrashekhar Bhadsavale, Sahyadri conducted training for paddy field farmers in the village Dugawe, Tehsil Chiplun using "Saguna Rice Technique" (SRT) which helps to increase the produce by at least 75%. The villagers  have agreed to use this technique during the coming season (May - Oct). During this session, information about Sterculia urens (aka Gum Karaya) for gum collection was also given to the private forest owners. Follow up meetings with the villagers have been planned through out the season.
• Sahyadri engaged 20 schools in select villages having private forests or vicinity to Western Ghats in districts of Konkan, Thane and Palghar districts and placed trap cameras to get the status of mammals seen in the area. The action has generated immense interest among students and helps to bring them closer to the nature. Regular monitoring of these trap cameras is done by Sahyadri's team along with students - teachers and the land owners. This also helps land owners to understand other avenues such as jungle tours to earn additional income rather than harvesting.
• Sahyadri has also conducted a joint meeting of private forest owners of 8 villages closer to Western Ghats to explore and share ideas about alternate income generation from their land.
• Dr. Umesh Karambelkar, a practitioner from Satara has authored a Marathi book about Carl Linnaeus and has donated the first edition's income to My Jungle project. It's very heartening to see such support.

We request you to talk to your friends and family about your reason to donate towards My Jungle and help us strengthen the chain of nature conservators.