Report of the Mudumalai wild life Camp

8/9/2019 Report of the Mudumalai wild life Camp

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REPORT OF THE NATURE CAMP AT MUDUMALAI WILD LIFE SANCTUARY

With a view to creating awareness on the Conservation of Wild animals among the

school students, WWF-Chennai Chapter, the Council for Science & Technology (Department

of Science, Technology and Environment , Puducherry in collaboration with The

Environment Education Cell of State Training Centre in the Directorate of School

Education, Puducherry organized a Nature Camp for Secondary school students ofPuducherry Region at Mudumalai Wild Life Sanctuary, Tamilnadu on 4-6th August 2010.

As a part of the selection process of the students, Environment Education Cell

conducted an Essay Competition on the Importance of Conservation of Forest and Wild Life

on the Earth for IX and XI students. 25 students out of which 9 boys and 16 girls were

selected for the Camp. With them, 2 lecturers and 2 volunteers from the Department of

Science and Technology, Puducherry were nominated to accompany the students as service

providers to them. Dr.V.Krishnan, Observer of the Nature camp and Mr.V.Ramalingam, the

Coordinator of the Env.Edn.Cell were guiding the camp with great commitment.

On the evening of 3rd August 2010, the team of the Nature Camp started its journeywith the encouraging instruction and blessings from the Director of Science and Technology,

Puducherry who came in person to see the students off for the Forest Expedition to

Mudumali Wild-Life Sanctuary.

Blessings from the Director (DSTE) Dr.Mohanraj Project Elephant Co-Ordinator

On the morning of 4th August 2010, Mrs. Rachel Pearlin State Director of WWF,

Chennai and Ms. Tamilselvi Jayachandiran, Education Officer of WWF, Chennai who had

organized the programme for the welfare of the school students of Puducherry Region

received the Team of the Nature Camp at Coimbatore and then took us in two vans to theField Office of the Forest Division of Mudumalai Wild Life Sanctuary in Ooty. The Field

Officer gave a lecture about the landscape, climatic condition and Flora and Fauna of

Mudumalai. And also he discussed at length the importance of Wild animals in an interactive

mode with the students. Ms.Tamilselvi, the Education Officer of WWF was requesting

officials to pass on the needy information to the students who would stay there for three days.

Following are the excerpts from their talk.


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Mr Soundrapandian, IFS , District Forest Officer, Nilgiri (North) gave a lecture about

the Nilgiri Biosphere

Mudumalai Wildlife Sanctuary & National Park is situated at the tri-junction of the

three southern states of Tamilnadu, Kerala, and Karnataka. It was the first sanctuary in

South India and established in the year 1940. It covers an area of 321 Sq. Km. comprising of

pristine tropical wilderness. It is included as part of the Nilgiri Bio-sphere reserve which is

the first of its kind to be declared as a bio-sphere reserve in the country. A variety of habitats

ranging from Tropical Evergreen forest, Moist mixed deciduous, Moist Teak forest, Dry teak

forest, Secondary grass lands, Shrubs and Swamps exists here. The place is rich in its bio-

diversity especially the avifauna (Birds). The river Moyar that flows along the border or

Tamil Nadu and Karnataka separates the two. The Indian Forest Department located in

Mudumalai National Park created many wildlife resorts and forest lodges situated in

Mudumalai forest itself. The bird diversity in these habitats is unbelievably rich and is a

welcoming place for bird watchers from far and wide. This park harbours over 200 species of

birds from 48 families and is one of the richest bird areas in the State of Tamilnadu. Some of

the rarely seen Birds of prey like the rufous bellied hawk eagle can be occasionally seen in

this sanctuary. Nights are fascinating especially during the month of April, when the whole

sanctuary is illuminated with millions of glow worms.

From the Field Office of Ooty, the Team of Nature Club along with coordinators

moved to the Mudumalai Wild life Sanctuary and reached there around 4.00 P.M. The

coordinator arranged a trip to inside the forest in a Forest van. It was really a boon for poor

government school children to see the forest in the real sense with real animals in theirnatural habitat. They saw peacocks, all varieties of deers, bisons, elephants and birds.

Children had no opportunity to witness any wild animals like tigers, wolf and haena.

However, they were happy seeing some of the animals on their own setting. Mr.Ramalingam,

Ms.Tamilselvi and Dr.V.Krishnan were answering all the questions posed by the students

untiringly and they explained certain scientific terminologies so that students could able to

understand the context better.


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After the trip, we were lodged at Peacock Dormitory located at Mudumalai Wild Life

Sanctuary, Mudumalai with a lot of precautious instruction. A homely and healthy supper

was provided with motherly affection of both the coordinators. Mr.Ramalingam was passing

some hints to the students how to prepare reports using the hints they had been taken during

the journey.

On the second day i.e. 5th August 2010, after breakfast, the active coordinator

Ms.Tamilselvi arranged a visit to a Forest Observatory located at the centre of the forest in a

specially designed van and our children interviewed persons who were on the Observatory

for Night and Day watch about the animals and the Poachers.


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The team walked to the deep-side of the forest with an indepth desire to see any wild

animals on their habitat. As a teacher I told them what I saw in the written slogan in the van

we traveled. Seeing animals in the forest is a matter of luck. However, they had witnessed

group of deers, elephants and Gaurs (Thanks to Ms.Tamilselvi who corrected us saying that

they are not bisons but Gaur).

And then the team moved on Forest Expedition i.e. Trekking in the forest for whichthe team was taken to Anaikkatti region, a location of 28 K.M. away from the main unit.

While on the way to trekking, we saw some of the villages and fields surrounded by

Electrified welded Fence, built around it for protecting the people from the wild animals. Our

coordinators and other higher officials justified the fact that we are using animals place as

intruders and they are not intruders to our life. Lying roads in the forest area and building

houses and other infrastructure for human facilities will always disturb the animal

settlement. This should be avoided in future. While meeting higher officials, with a

precautionary measure, they denied the permission for trekking which is really dangerous for

school children in the age group of 14-16 and they advised us to go to the centre of the forest

with great care to observe the Biosphere of the Mudumalai. Accordingly, the coordinator

along with two forest rangers took us to Anaikatti forest area where we stayed for more than3 hours.

Dr.Krishnan, who is an expert in Eco-system gave indepth explanation about the type

of forests and flora and fauna of the forest and MrKalaivanan, Forest vetinary Doctor joined

and explained his views on behaviour and diseases of wild animals. Further he explained how

the research scholors in the forests vediographed the movement of the animals .Students with

binoculars were enjoying sightseeing in the forest with the scholarly information of

Ms.Tamilselvi, the wild life coordinator.

Then around 3.30 P.M the team returned to the Mudumalai Wild Life Sanctuary andvisited a Museum. The Curator of the Museum imparted numerous information to the

students and operated a specially designed electronic instrument to produce various sounds of

birds and animals in the forest. The students had taken a lot of notes and photographs from

the museum for reporting. In the end, we returned to the pavilion of Peacock dormitory for

rest, as the birds and animals do in the forest.


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On the morning of 6th August 2010, the team began the day with complimentary trip to

visit to the forest to see the rest of the animals in the forest. We were accompanied by a

ranger to guide us along with the coordinator. We had a privilege to visit the forest thrice.

Our coordinator arranged a meeting with the Mr. Srivastav, Director of the Muduamalai

Wild Life Sanctuary, Mudumalai who spoke with us the objectives of the Nature Camp andthe reason for inviting school children in detail. Our team members went on asking their

doubts about conservation of wild animals. The students enjoyed his tamil accent which

shows his interest to converse the subject matter in the local language to reach the public

whose cooperation is highly essential. He instructed the forest officials to distribute pamphlets

abundantly to the students to support the importance of conservation. It is highly appreciable

to have seen a poem on Tiger written by the Director and to get it translated into a local

language to publicize the matters for wider reach.

With all the students, teachers and volunteers, the team was taken to the feeding

centre to note down how animals were fed in their sheds. The students were very curious

enough to know the content and nutritional units of the food of the elephants. It was a

memorable scenes to have seen elephant with huge stomach taking nutritional food from the

hands of mahout. And also the team had seen a deserted calf elephant by her mother in the

forest and the forest department had adopted it with great care.


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Saying good bye to the forest officials who were with us warmly and friendly and to

the animals, we started to Filed Office of MWLS in Ooty where we met Mr.Jayachandran,

Hon.Secretary, Nilgiri Wildlife and Environment Association gave important information

about the wild life activities that students can undertake in future and Mr.Sreekumar, with

his power point presentation, highlighted the characteristic features of snakes and its

behaviour and how human beings should look at it differently. His class was thoughtprovoking and everyone one touched the snake he had in his hand. He carefully removed the

myth of snakes that people of India believe it true. And Mr.Jayaprakash, a noted photo-

journalist, showing a series of pictures of birds and animals discussed the nature of the forests

and behaviour of birds and animals in detail.

The Team of Nature Camp returned to Puducherry after having seen Botanical

Garden of Ooty with a firm belief that this team will surely undertake concerted effort to

conserve wild life in the forest for which they will do some ground works for better

propagation among the school children, parents and the public.

V.RamalingamIn-Charge

Environment Education Cell

State Training Centre

Directorate of School Education

Pondicherry-605005

Report of the Mudumalai wild life Camp

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Transcript of Report of the Mudumalai wild life Camp