While India was grappling with a near financial crisis and the USA was busy making a fool out of itself, some of us were having a blast with school kids from Arunachal Pradesh at Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary! The 4th annual nature camp organized by the Shergaon Forest Division, and designed by my friends Dr. Nandini Velho and Dr. Umesh Srinivasan brought us together. Umesh conducted several presentations and film screenings, while Chandini Chhabra from Leaps and Bounds engaged the kids in some delightful and interactive lessons in biology and ecology. Satem Longchar, an Oxford alumnus and wildlife biologist from Nagaland held talks on the mammals of Eaglenest and microscopy, while Lhopsang Tashi from NERIS enlightened us all about medicinal plants. As we speak, Gerard Martin from 'The Gerry Martin Project' is with the kids conducting activities and lessons on herpetology!
I too conducted a wildlife cartooning workshop with the kids, creating cartoon characters out of Red Pandas and Bugun Liocichlas (a critically endangered bird species known only from Eaglenest WLS), and took them through the process of creating a comic strip with a conservation message. Here's the strip I drew with the kids. Not surprisingly, many of them came up with their own strips by the end of the lesson!
A big thanks to Nandini, Umesh and DFO Mr. Millo Tasserfor having us there!
