NATURE CLUB
SURAT
Environment Education & Research centre
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Environment Education & Research centre
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Nature Education Camp - Dangs 2008 Wild Venture Camp Dandeli, Karnataka Bird Watching Trip Nalsarovar 2009 Himalayan Experience camp Manali 2009 Nature Art & Craft Workshop, Saputara Opportunities @ Nature Club Surat |
Jungle Book is a Bimonthly newsletter of Nature Club Surat
JUNGLE BOOK... OCTOBER - 2007 Dear Friends, The vulture situation all over Asia is very bad. Some of the Indian populations have been completely wiped out in many states. Through Bird conservation society of Gujarat, significant awareness programs have been started. BCSG Surat chapter and Nature Club Surat have started a unique vulture feeding project for vultures found in Hazira area near Surat. It had been observed by our volunteers, that nowadays no cattle carcasses are left in open. They are either buried or collected by people for commercial purpose such as leather, meat and bones. Thus almost no food is available nearby for the vultures. Even if a carcass is available, the dogs would keep the vultures away, leaving the vultures hungry. Our volunteers therefore concluded that the best solution would be to provide carcass in a protected area. Also, the threat of Diclofenac (which is responsible for vulture decline), can be mitigated by providing the alternate medicine Meloxicam at cheaper cost to veterinary doctors and cattle raisers. Both these steps would help a lot in retaining wild vulture populations. The first step was to locate Diclofenac free carcass for feeding. Since, most ill animals would have been treated with Diclofenac, it was not possible to provide this, without proper verifications. The alternative was carcasses, where healthy cattle, which were victim of an accident. Surat has contractors, which remove such cattle, which have died in an accident and they extract leather, hide and bones from them, before properly disposing such cattle. We got in touch with one of the contractors, who agreed to provide such cattle, provided he would get back the bones after the vultures have taken the flesh. The next problem was to transport such carcass to feeding site. No transporter was willing to do this task. Finally, we got a private jeep trailer, which can be towed behind a car. The carcasses are loaded at night and transported to the feeding site 30 kms away and far from human settlement. From the very first day, there were 40 vultures at the site. On the third feeding day, there were 58 vultures. Nature club Surat has setup 2 feeding days per week. One surprising observation was there were Long billed vultures at 8:30 am in the morning. Since, these birds roost in cliffs and the nearest cliffs are 100 kms away, we were surprised how these birds could cover the distance without thermals, so early in morning. The only possible conclusion is a likely palm top roosting nearby. The next aspect to work on was to convince all veterinary doctors and cattle raisers, to use Meloxicam and they can purchase it from Nature club Surat at a lower cost than Diclofenac. The cattle raisers also indicated that if any of their cattle died, they would provide it to Nature club for disposal to the feeding site. This was also beneficial to them, because the cost of burying the cattle was around Rupees 500. We hope that in a short time, the number of avian visitors to our feeding site will increase. Also, our club has also conducted awareness programs in 12 schools of Hazira for the vulture conservation and awareness. Totally 135 vultures were counted in a recent exhaustive Vulture census in the Hazira belt. No doubt, this is an expensive project, but we believe, it would be an amazing achievement, if we can save the last remaining vultures from extinction. I take this opportunity to thank our volunteer team consisting of Goldi, Jigar, Pranav, Babu, Hiren and all others who are running this activity extremely successfully. Also, I request all our members and well-wishers to contribute generously for this project. Wild Ungulates Breeding project - EditorNature club Surat has proposed to start a deer breeding project at our club’s property in Vansda National Park. The proposal is to enhance the deer population in a semi restricted area and eventually release them in the wild. South Gujarat has seen a dwindling population of prey animals and this has sharply lead to a rise in number of leopards venturing in to human habitations. Last year, 18 leopards were trapped and later released back in to the forest areas. It is a known fact, there are hardly any deer left in Dang forest. The proposal for the deer breeding project has been sent to the Forest department for approval. Also, we are glad to inform all our club members that Nature Club Surat, is the proud owner of a small plot of land located within Vansda National Park. This has been possible through generous donations of our club members Shri Rajan Shah, Jawahar Patel, Anil Sorathia and Snehal Patel. Upcoming ProgramsNature education camp DangsDandeli Nature CampOur club has organized a trip to Dandeli Wildlife sanctuary. The region offers you the best of adventure and lush deciduous forests within the Western Ghats and is one of the richest wildlife habitats in the world. If you want to spend some unforgettable moments in the midst of nature, come to Dandeli. Dandeli is located in Northern Karnataka, approximately 125 kms from Goa. Dates: 13 Nov 2007 to 19 Nov 2007 Please contact Falguni Patel 94268 46708 for further details. ActivitiesMonsoon adventure CampAround 60 employees of the Transit Electronics Pvt. Ltd participated in the monsoon adventure camp which was held on 26-27th August, 2007 wherein, they did many activities such as monsoon trekking, rappelling, management games, Dangi dance etc. Nature Trail at SilvassaTourism Corporation, Dadra and Nagar Haveli in conjunction with the Forest department had organized a Monsoon magic festival during the months of July and August. And during this festival Nature Club Surat had conducted a program on Monsoon trekking. It was on 21 July, 28 July and on 4th August, 07. Environment Education Bus:With the financial support from the Gujarat Gas Co. and BG India, CEE Ahmedabad sent the Environment education bus again to Surat. This time again the bus had been to many schools of Surat along with Bharuch and Ahmedabad. We are pleased to inform you that this year too, our Club has been selected as the coordinator for the Surat district. This year during the period between 16-23 August, 2007 in the first phase, the bus had been to around 10 schools in our town Surat. Around 4125 students took advantage of the information given by the Volunteers of the bus. The details are below:
Monsoon Camp: On 21-22 July a monsoon camp was organized where 17 members participated. During this camp participants enjoyed the scenic view of the Gira falls, Pandava caves and Rush patthar falls. Summer Vacation activities at Maa Foundation, Vapi: Nature Club Surat was invited by the Maa Foundation, Vapi to perform various activities like Snake show, Bird photo show, plaster casting etc. Apart from this they also performed and showed the participants various mountaineering knots. Around 300 students participated in these activities. Nature Exhibition: During 14-16th August, 2007 an exhibition was organized at the A.V.Patel High School, Lambe Hanuman Road by our club. And the students as well as many of their parents had the opportunity to witness the exhibition. Approximately 1000 plus persons visited the exhibition. Snake Shows: During the months of July and August snake shows were organized at 26 places which included many schools and nearby villages too. Volunteers of Nature Club Surat have been doing these shows in the schools since quite long time, but now we have been covering schools in nearby villages as well. The club volunteers have taken up a project to create awareness amongst the people in these villages. The project has been successful in making the people aware of the poisonous snakes found and the blind belief pertaining the snakes. Around 7550 persons took the advantage of these shows. During the months of July and August the volunteers of our Club performed snake shows at the following schools
Tree plantation program: Between 1st July and 19th August, 2007 a program of Tree Plantation was conducted wherein participants undertook the work of planting trees at Gavier Lake periphery. Film show on Vultures: As you are well aware, that our Club has undertaken a Vulture Conservation Project with the help of LNG Pvt. Ltd Hazira, O.N.G.C and Suzlon Energy Pvt. Ltd. And during the months of July and August film shows were shown in 10 schools of Hazira and 3 schools in the Surat city. A total of 2935 students watched this film “Vanishing Vultures” and acquired information on the Vultures. The table shown below highlights the schools where the film was projected.
Animal Welfare ReportThe table here highlights the rescue activities during the months of July and August. The following number of reptiles, birds and other animals were rescued by the volunteers of Nature Club Surat.
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