A workshop on Digital photography will be conducted by Mr. Mohanbhai Bharwani. Mr Bharwani is one of the senior most Life Member of our club. He is a visiting faculty at College of architect, SCET along with the Interior Design and Fine arts- VNSGU, and also at School of Interior Design. Participants are requested to bring along with them their Cameras, Memory Card, fully charged batteries, any old photographs clicked by them in the past, a note book and a pen.

This workshop is open for all members, even if you do not have a digital camera. This is an excellent opportunity to learn Digital Photography.

Date: 27 April 2008, Sunday

Time: 10:00 a.m to 1:00 p.m

Venue: MahaLaxmi Party Plot, Behind Iscon Mall, Piplod

Please contact Viral Prajapati - 9825057678 (10.00am to 7.00pm only) for more details.

Slide Show

A slide show by Viral Prajapati on "What's the difference between…?" has been arranged. Be sure to join us, as our regular weekly meeting will also be conducted here.

Date: 20 April 2008, Sunday

Time: 8:00 p.m

Venue: MahaLaxmi Party Plot, Behind Iscon Mall, Piplod

Activities

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the club was conducted to elect members of the governing committee. The club members have elected to continue with the existing governing committee members, with the following changes: Saurabh Desai and Pratik Patel have been added to the governing committee. Members also viewed the famed documentary, by Al Gore on Global Warming.

CEE Bus Exhibition and Environment Education Report

- Daxesh Patel

As part of our environment education activities, we have been operating exhibitions in Environment Education Bus with Center for Environment Education (CEE). This program has been ongoing in Surat district for the past three years. This year, between Mar 11 and 15 the bus was here in Surat. Thereafter it was been taken for the exhibition to various schools in Vyara Taluka. In all, the bus visited schools in 5 villages which include Borkhadi, Vazarda, Sarkuwa, Khambhala and Vyara. During this program, exhibits were displayed and the students were given information regarding the same. We also conducted other environment education programs as part of this tour, with the exhibition. Apart from this, the participants were also shown two documentaries on "Vanishing Vultures" to save Vultures and other on how to save energy (Navo jamano navi race). Many people took the benefit of this program including the Sarpanch, Villagers and Students from the local village schools and made this program a big success. In all around 3000 people and students took part in this program.

A report on a visit to the Gavier Lake and Eco-Farm

- Hiren Chaudhari

On 14-03-08, a group of 50 students from M. N. J. Patel secondary school visited the Gavier wetland and Eco Farm. At Gavier wetland, the students were shown different birds through a telescope. Thereafter, they were briefed on the birds seen around the wetland and how to identify them. They learnt many other things apart from bird watching such as identifying various plants and trees around the lake, their uses and how to take care of such plants and trees. Students had great fun and acquired hands-on knowledge from their visit to the wetland. Later, they visited Eco Farm, where they participated in various activities such as rock climbing on the artificial wall erected there and rappelling. All the students enjoyed this unique experience and had lot of fun and learnt many new things on their visit to the Eco-Farm. They also had a small nature trail around the farm and tried identifying birds and plants there. They also participated in activities such as snake show, balancing on the log, Tarzan swing. The activities were adventurous and great fun. During the snake show, the students gathered more information on snakes and were highlighted on the blind beliefs people have regarding some snakes. They also had an opportunity of touching the snakes. It was a very good experience and the memories will remain in our hearts for long time to come.

These activities are highly appreciated and in future we wish that many such activities will be conducted for the benefit of children. This will help the new generation to know about their environmental heritage and conserve it. (Mr. Hiren Chaudhari is a teacher and member of the Eco Club, M. N. J. Patel secondary school)

A report on prakruti samvad at Eco-fair

- Viral Prajapati

A Prakruti Samvad (Eco-Fair) was organized by GEER Foundation and CEE at Indroda park, Gandhinagar from 28th Feb to 1st March, 2008. Around 50 schools participated in this fair. As a District Co-ordinator of Surat district Nature Club Surat had also participated with 11 schools from our district. Many projects were exhibited along with various activities for students. Many prizes were won under our Club's guidance.

Keval Vijwala from Shardayatan School won the 3rd prize in Painting competition. Parth Lathiya and his team partner Sagar Kathiriya from MNJ Patel School won the 1st prize in quiz competition. Parth Lathiya again from MNJ Patel School won 3rd prize in slogan competition. A group of students from St. Xavier's School, Umarpada won the 2nd prize of being the best stall of the fair. They were under the guidance of their teacher, Nileshbhai. In an elocution competition for teachers, Mr. Kantibhai Patel a teacher from Daliya stood 2nd.

Over all the performance was good on the State level and all the students enjoyed the fair very much and learnt many new things from there too. It is my appeal to other schools also to come forward and participate in such activities to help MOTHER NATURE. Hope that in future whenever there is such type of Fair or exhibition organized more schools will come forward and participate so that we can take pride of the work done by the Eco-Clubs from various schools of our Surat District.

Save Paper

We can send you a soft copy of Jungle Book, instead of printed one. Just drop an email, with Subject: Save Paper, to info@natureclubsurat.org and we will send you Jungle Book by email!

Forthcoming programs

Himalayan Nature Education Camp, Manali

Nature art and craft workshop, Saputara

Jeep Safari : Manali - Leh - Ladakh

Wild Venture Camp - Dandeli, Karnataka

One Day Camp for kids Eco Farm, Vesu

Workshop on Digital Photography