Part 9 (1/2)
P: Their only duty is to see to the well-being of the animals i.e. feed them and keep their surroundings clean. They do not study or do research on the animals.
R: How did you acquire this post of Princ.i.p.al Chief Conservator of Forests? What was your background?
P: Like you, I had to study. I answered an examination and got a job as a forest officer. Later I went to the US for two years and on my return I was appointed as Chief Conservator of Forests.
R: Is it possible to set up a Snake Park for doing snake venom extraction?
P: Of course it is possible. But one must apply for a licence/permission for keeping wild snakes in captivity. Pune Snake Park will know the procedure and if you write to them they will give you all the details.
Mr Parameswarappa proved to be a very friendly and helpful person.
Before I left I showed him copies of the letters which I had already sent to the Indira Gandhi Research Inst.i.tute and to the Indian Wildlife Research Inst.i.tute at Dehradun.
My second appointment was with Mr Arun Kotankar, one of the main persons running an organisation called Samvad which has a programme called SMILE (Student Mobilisation Initiative for Learning) in Bangalore. I reached the office at 10.30 a.m. although my appointment was at 12 o'clock. I showed him my reference letter and in a little while he sat to talk with me.
Mr Kotankar told me about the SMILE programmes in Bangalore. On Sat.u.r.day afternoons they have an informal open house at Samvad. They watch a film, have a debate or just talk on a specific topic of interest to students, like tourism, dowry, child abuse, fisherfolk's struggles or topics like marriage, love, education or parents.
Students also visit organisations working with dalits, tribals, women, street children, fisherpeople, etc. One can also learn environmental conservation. If the students cannot go to far off places and have to stay back during vacations, they are advised to take up campaigns or undertake studies on local problems like child labour, environmental degradation, construction workers' rights, etc.
Shodhane which means 'search' is a newsletter brought out by students who have been to these exposure camps and they write about their experiences during the exposure or generally about other social concerns. One can contribute articles, poems, cartoons or stories in Kannada and English. I was quite interested to hear all that Mr Kotankar had to say about this organisation.
Later, I went straight to St. Joseph's College where according to the information Bing had, there were various environmental courses being conducted for college students. I met one of the clerks in the college office who gave me the information I requested and also a pamphlet listing the different courses one could take after graduation.
Two days later I went to meet Dr Harish Gaonkar at his house, at 11 a.m. Both he and his wife (who is German) were very friendly and I spent a lot of time talking with Mr Gaonkar who is a specialist on b.u.t.terflies.
I learnt from him that b.u.t.terflies are insects that are more closely related to plants than to insects. From the number of species of b.u.t.terflies in an area, a b.u.t.terfly collector can also find out the number of species of plants in that area. This is because each species of b.u.t.terfly will use only a certain plant/plants species. For example, in Goa, there are about 250 species of b.u.t.terflies, that means that there are about 900 to 1,000 plant species in Goa. This information would be much more difficult for a pure botanist to give. Thus b.u.t.terflies are an ideal medium for a botanist who wishes to have an idea of the plant species in the locality.
Eggs are laid by the mother b.u.t.terflies in distinct places on leaves to avoid predators from feeding upon them. They hatch within two to three days. The larvae will moult many times (on an average five) to become a pupa. During the pupa stage, it does not feed and after a few days it emerges as a b.u.t.terfly. It waits for about 10 minutes to dry its wings in the sun and then flutters away. The whole process to become an adult may take a period of five weeks to two months. Then the b.u.t.terfly will live for about 2 weeks, and within the first few days, will lay only one batch of eggs.
Moths are the ones that spin silk. No b.u.t.terfly spins silk. There are about 10,000 species of moths in the world-much more than b.u.t.terflies.
Some b.u.t.terflies and moths are poisonous e.g. the Crimson Rose, even found in Goa. It is a b.u.t.terfly with wings and a red body. It also has red dots on its wings and black dots on its body. The smallest b.u.t.terflies are about a few centimetres in size and one of the biggest b.u.t.terflies is about the size of two palms put together.
At the end of the meeting Dr Gaonkar showed me some books on b.u.t.terflies and some papers written by him on the subject. At around 1.30 p.m. I took leave of him and left for MES College where I had an appointment with Dr Leela for the same afternoon. There I saw preserved dolphin tails and specimens of hammer-headed sharks.
My stay in Bangalore also became very special because of the Times of India programme that Bing managed to arrange for me. The Times of India in Bangalore has a special section called ”Newspaper in Education”. One of the programmes of NIE is to have workshops in schools on varied topics. On the 20th of January, I went to The Times office on M.G. Road and after talking with the person in charge for sometime about what I had been doing during the past year I was asked whether I would take a few workshops in some schools over the next couple of days. Although I was not too certain how well I would do this job I agreed because if there is one thing I learnt during my sabbatical it is that one should always give a try to anything new because things are not always as hard as they might appear to be. So I said yes.
My first workshop was on the 22nd of January. I was picked up by one of the organisers from NIE and taken to the Srivani Education Centre where I was to speak to the students of Standard VIII. I was expected to speak for about 35 minutes and keep around 10 minutes for questions or discussion.
I was a bit nervous at first but as the talk progressed and I found the students listening attentively I talked more freely. After these sessions were over I would be dropped back home or to Hartman's office whichever was nearer. After the first few schools went off well and I became accustomed to the routine I found myself enjoying these cla.s.ses.
I was even more pleased to learn that I would be paid Rs.100 per workshop plus my travel costs.
For the talk I would start by telling the students about my sabbatical, how the idea came up, the various places I had visited and the various things I had done so far. After that I would speak about two topics-vermiculture and snakes-because I thought that these would be of most use to the students. Vermiculture because they could practise this at home to process the garbage into compost and snakes because people have so many fears about them.
When I talked about vermiculture, particularly about mixing cowdung with soil, sometimes the girls and boys would find it distasteful and would make jokes about it or laugh at the idea and I would think that these are city kids and they don't know anything about cowdung. But still I would continue to explain how a vermipit can be set up in their homes.
On snakes, I would first give general information about poisonous and non-poisonous snakes, and how to identify the poisonous ones. Then I would tell them what should be done if someone got a snake bite. I would also discuss the various beliefs that people have about snakes and which of them are myths. Depending on the time left, I would speak about other things too, like crocodiles, turtles or spiders.
At the end of the cla.s.s, I would show them croc teeth, photos of myself with snakes, crocs, monitors, etc., and then my red-eared turtle that I always carried around with me in my bag. At this point there would be maximum excitement. Everyone would crowd around, some would ask to hold the turtle and they would ask questions about its eating habits etc. I would allow them to touch the sh.e.l.l and nothing more because the turtle is very nasty and bites.
In this fas.h.i.+on I took workshops at several other schools including National English School, Sindhi School, St. Mary's School, Bolivian Girls School and Bangalore International School. I usually spoke to the students of Cla.s.s VII to X. At Bangalore International School however the workshop was for the students of Cla.s.s III and IV.