Category: learning about nature


A gift of trees

Filed Under: education for special needs children, environmental programs for students, learning about nature, trees by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
June 14, 2024

On June 5, the C.P.R. Environmental Education Centre (CPREEC), in Chennai, India, celebrated World Environment Day 2024 with a lovely day devoted to planting trees.

At a school for the speech and hearing impaired, the Dr. M.G.R. Home & Higher Secondary School in Ramapuram, Chennai, Dr. Sudhakar, the Director of CPREEC, led a program distributing saplings and planting them on the school grounds. Chennai is a large city in south India on the coast.

Among the plants were Indian Gooseberry, which is a plant native to India that can be helpful with respiratory problems. Among the other plants, Hibiscus are bright, colorful flowers. Jasmine has a lovely fragrance. Great Basil is a tropical herb that grows well in plenty of sunlight. A total of fifteen saplings were planted by 78 teachers and teacher trainees.

It is a very hot time of year there now, but it’s still a good time to put plants in the ground.

The students at the school, who are deaf, are appreciative of plants which have bright colors and intriguing scents, which appeal to the senses of sight and smell. They enjoy being out in nature and experiencing the beauty of the school grounds.

Dr Sudhakar spoke to the students about the benefits of trees and other plants. They improve the quality of the air that people breathe, and they encourage other living beings to take up residence there – such as butterflies and birds. As the students learn about plants, they become more aware of the beauty and benefits of the whole of nature.

The funds sent to CPREEC by Forest Voices of India, which were donated by generous people attending events in Kanab, Utah. were used to purchase the many varieties of saplings, which will now grow into beautiful trees to enrich the lives of the students and teachers at the school.

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Forest Voices of India helps support charities in India

Filed Under: education for disadvantaged children, environmental programs for students, learning about nature by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
December 2, 2023

Forest Voices of India, a U.S. 501 C 3 charity, helps support four charities in south India.

The names of these Indian charities are – The WRRC – Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (in Bangalore); Blue Cross of India, in Chennai; the CP Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, and its sister organization, CPREEC – the CPR Environmental Education Centre (in Chennai).

Another bonnet macaque - from south India.

The WRRC, in Bangalore, rescues, cares for, and releases back to the wild, orphaned or injured wildlife, especially forest animals. They rescue and release several thousand wild animals each year.

Blue Cross takes in and finds new homes for homeless dogs and cats, as well as other domestic animals, rescuing and caring for 10,000 animals each year.

The C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation and CPREEC are primarily educational organizations. They run several schools, including elementary schools for children. In India, schools are not free and are not paid for by the government. The parents pay for their children to go to school.

These schools, run by the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation, provide scholarships for the children whose parents cannot afford to pay. In addition, the Foundation also provides around one thousand scholarships each year for children to attend other schools in the city of Chennai. Without this help, these children from poor families would not be able to attend school at all and would not receive any education. With this help, they have a bright future, filled with possibilities. They can go on to a university to become doctors, attorneys, accountants, teachers, or whatever career they choose. Many fields are open to them.

In addition, the CPRA Foundation also runs programs each year for around 10,000 young people – mostly of high school age, in six states in south India – to go on excursions out into the wilderness or forest areas – to do scientific projects to study the eco-systems. This takes these young people out into nature and not only gives them scientific knowledge, but also a profound awareness of the environment and a lifelong love of the natural world.

All of the educational work of the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation and CPREEC instills in young people a profound connection with the world of nature – which, of course, benefits both the planet earth and the young people themselves.

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The Early Universe with Akshatha Vydula

Filed Under: learning about nature by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
October 13, 2023

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Bird of the Day: Ruff — Organikos

Filed Under: learning about nature, wild birds, wildlife by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
April 29, 2023

Hanchinal Lake, Vijayapura, Karnataka

Bird of the Day: Ruff — Organikos
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A misunderstood cobra

Filed Under: animal protection in Asia, forests, learning about nature, sacred ecology, wildlife rehabilitation, wildlife rescue by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
December 9, 2022

A couple of years back, the Jigni area on the outskirts of the large south Indian city, Bangaluru, was a field where a kind of millet was grown. Now, it has been developed and is filled with homes. On November 29, of this year, a spectacled cobra was spotted who had accidentally entered a family’s house.

The people who lived there were startled by the cobra, and they called a snake catcher to come and catch him.

Sadly, the snake catcher had no experience catching snakes, and he was way out of his depth. He had bought some snake tongs on the internet. Catching snakes is an activity that requires a great deal of knowledge and years of experience. Without meaning to, he injured the snake by clamping down too hard. Hurt and in pain, the snake became aggressive. Afraid and not knowing what to do, the inexperienced snake catcher let go of the snake, leaving the tongs still attached to the snake.

This time the family called an experienced snake catcher, who arrived within an hour, safely removed the tongs, and rescued the cobra. He also took the time to educate everyone present not to use the wrong tools, like the tongs, which are very painful to snakes. He then, in the middle of the night, brought the injured cobra to be cared for at the WRRC center in Bangaluru (the Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre), where all kinds of wildlife in distress are treated with great kindness and expertise.

Dr. Roopa Satish, the Chief Wildlife Rehabilitator, examined the cobra that weighed 740 grams, about one and a half pounds.

Luckily, there were no spinal injuries. The cobra was given pain killers and fluids, and the wound was thoroughly cleaned and dressed.

He was moved into a clean vivarium with a bowl of fresh water and a heating pad and left in peace and quiet to recover.

Happily, within two days, the cobra had much improved and began looking for a way to escape from his vivarium.

All animals, whether wild or domestic, are, by nature, innocent. They defend themselves if attacked and, of course, they seek food to eat. But they do not act out of malice or viciousness.

Once the relevant Forest Department permissions are obtained, the cobra will be released in the second week of December in a good habitat away from both people and housing developments.

Thanks to human beings who cared, he’ll be free to enjoy the rest of his life in a suitable wild area, as nature intended.

Photo credit: Kamalnv, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons The photo is of a different cobra.

© Copyright Forest Voices of India, 2022

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Bird of the Day: Night Heron — Organikos

Filed Under: learning about nature, wild birds by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
October 1, 2022

Cochin Outskirts, Kerala

Bird of the Day: Night Heron — Organikos
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Wildebeest migration

Filed Under: animals, learning about nature, wildlife by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
August 5, 2022

Musuni Letura, Kenyan wildlife expert and friend of Forest Voices of India, has created this video of the annual migration of the wildebeests and the zebras – the largest, or one of the largest, animal migrations on earth. It is an amazing sight. Please enjoy watching!

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What does Forest Voices of India actually do?

Filed Under: education for disadvantaged children, environmental programs for students, learning about nature, restoration of small forests, trees, urban animals, wild birds, wildlife rehabilitation by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
May 13, 2022

What does Forest Voices of India actually do?

Forest Voices of India is a U.S.- based 501 C 3 organization that helps support four charities in India…

A young boy is enchanted by a blue butterfly and by the tall trees he walks among, along with his classmates on a nature outing into the forest. They do a detailed study of the eco-system. Twenty years later, as a successful businessman, he avoids making investments that might harm the wilderness. Instead, he looks for ways to invest that will build eco-friendly environments to restore nature. In the back of his mind – always – he remembers the blue-winged butterfly.

A young woman from a disadvantaged background has not been able to finish school. It’s difficult to find a job and she feels at loose ends until she takes a handicrafts workshop which teaches how to make delightful objects out of environmentally friendly, natural materials. She is also taught how to start a business selling handicrafts. Happy making lovely objects – she looks to a brighter future ahead.

Along with a group of her peers, a middle-aged woman has been taught how to start her own business. No longer feeling trapped sitting at home, she has some extra money now to help support her family, and she feels a renewed sense of purpose – along with a sense of peace.

These and many other programs run by the Ramaswami Foundation (the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation) and their sister organization – the C.P. Ramaswami Environmental Education Centre — bring about dramatic changes in people’s lives. They reach tens of thousands of people in six different states in south India – not just bringing a sense of fulfilment to individual people but transforming people’s relationship with the natural world – bringing life to both people and the earth.

Over the past thirty years or so, the Ramaswami Foundation has restored 53 sacred groves – small forests. These vary in size from just a couple of acres to two or three hundred acres. Each is closely connected traditionally with a nearby village…

To be continued…

Photos:
C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation and the C.P. Environmental Education Centre

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Interview with Dr. Nanditha Krishna

Filed Under: art and culture of India, education for disadvantaged children, environmental programs for students, learning about nature, restoration of forest groves, sacred ecology by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
October 14, 2021

Most of us cannot speak Tamil; however, if you take a moment or two to look at this beautiful video – somewhere in the middle, you will be able to get an idea of the peaceful, graceful surroundings of the C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Foundation….

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Dr. Nanditha Krishna speaking about sacred groves

Filed Under: animals, art and culture of India, forests, learning about nature, restoration of forest groves, restoration of small forests, sacred ecology, trees by sharonstjoan — Leave a comment
July 10, 2021

Under the leadership of Dr. Nanditha Krishna, the CPREEC (C.P. Ramaswami Aiyar Environmental Education Centre) in Chennai, India, has restored 53 sacred groves, over the past thirty years – bringing back the original flora and fauna and restoring these small forests with the same species of plants and animals which always lived there in the past, providing once again beautiful tranquil lands which the people living nearby had treasured in the past. Each village in India once had a sacred grove. Now, the village people themselves maintain and care for these restored sacred forests and the abundant wildlife that live there.

These ancient sacred groves represent one of the amazing traditions of India, which has traditionally valued and preserved the life and the beauty of the natural world.

Dr. Nanditha Krishna is an environmentalist, art historian and well-known author of over twenty-five books about the art, culture, and the natural world of India. Among these are Hinduism and Nature, Sacred Animals of India, and Sacred Plants of India.

Listening to this short video, you will be transported to the city of Chennai where you will be among the tall, peaceful trees of the CPREEC and CPRA Foundation centers, yet not far from the busy city life of nearby streets.

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