“Ma’am please don’t let him cut that branch,” said Sahana Shaikh, 12, to her school principal, Nikita Pimple. “That’s where the coppersmith barbette nests every winter!” Ms. Pimple recalls that a tree-trimmer from the municipality was at work just beyond the grounds of Rishi Valmiki Eco School, when the impassioned eco-warrior made her plea. Ms. Pimple had dozens of other anecdotes to share, like students talking about how they rescued a rat and set it free in a garden, and creating an info sheet with contact details for pet-ambulance services in the city.
As its names suggests, RVES emphasises the importance of the environment. Little wonder, then, that RVES is the venue of the upcoming Earth Mela 2017.
Currently in its ninth year, the mela is a crowd-funded event that will be held on December 31. This year, in line with the UN’s International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development, the theme is responsible tourism. Through games, talks, workshops, films, story-telling sessions, photo exhibitions, and even an adventure sports arena, it will educate visitors on greening their getaways.
A better planet
“Responsible travel goes beyond controlling your carbon footprint,” says Anand Pendharkar, wildlife biologist, and founder-director of Sprouts Environment Trust, the organiser of the event. “It’s about supporting local communities and artisans, living with the locals and filling up on local produce, respecting their culture and preserving their traditional way of life. And being open to sharing of knowledge and ideas.”
The school isn’t just the venue. RVES students will perform a skit that will have you thinking about your impact on the environment. There are also talks and lectures.
Sunita Ramchandra, 46, and Vandana Bhavsar, 50, for instance, will talk about their many adventures bicycling across the country. “Until four years ago, neither of us had sat on a bicycle as adults,” Ms. Ramchandra says. “But once we got on the saddle, we kept pushing.” Ms. Bhavsar remembers, “When we told people our plans, many warned us it wasn’t safe for women, cited our age, warned of health issues. We wanted to prove them wrong.” On the experience, Ms. Ramchandra says, “It’s totally different on a cycle. We could hear the chirping of the bulbul, spot the kingfisher in the trees, glimpse the dance of a peacock. All with no guilt of harming the environment.” On bicycles, Ms. Bhavsar agrees, one is more connected. “You’re quite literally grounded; it’s easier for locals to interact with you. We’ve come back with countless stories, pages of local recipes, hand-made trinkets… and we’ve always felt immensely loved. And we are still in excellent health!”
In another talk, Amruta Padgaonkar, a student of marine biology, will showcase the city’s marine biodiversity. “Most people think of Mumbai’s waters as being too polluted to hold marine life, but we’ve got seven varieties of sea-snakes, colourful anemones, soft corals, sea sponges, crabs.” The talk will also cover safety, and being conscious of the fragility of marine life.
Alka Vaidya, a moth researcher, will talk of these insects most people tend to be oblivious to, preferring prettier butterflies. But there are over 15,000 species of moths in India, and Mumbai and its surrounds have over 350 species. “It is important for us to learn about moths,” she says. “because they are excellent pollinators, serve as food for birds, and they can also be terrible pests for farmers.”
Not just talk
Then, Saurabh Sawant will show his photographs of creatures from tigers and leopards to snakes and butterflies. He will also conduct a workshop on the ethics of nature photography, from basics like not using a flash and remembering that selfies with wild animals could be plain dangerous.
And there’s a story-telling session by Prachi Galange and Sangeeta Gupta, which will take the audience right into the forests.
There are other participatory events too. Like face-painting, where you can learn to make natural pigments — turmeric for yellow, beet for red — and your kids (or you) can colour themselves with zebra stripes or cheetah spots.
For active types, there is a workshop by the Indradhanu Kalarang troupe, on dances from different regions in the country. Or you could try adventure sports — rock-climbing, ziplining, and others — or learn ultimate frisbee with Storm Chasers, the team that represents the city in tournaments.
“In India, we have always celebrated nature at religious festivals,” says Anand Pendharkar, wildlife biologist, and founder-director of Sprouts Environment Trust, the organiser of the event. “Huttari for harvest, Ganesh Chaturthi puts the focus on the elephant, Nag Panchami has us worshipping the snake. But the Earth Mela isn’t limited to a particular people. It encompasses belief systems, economic backgrounds and other man-made differences. It brings us together on common ground: the natural world, and what we can do to protect it.”
Earth Mela: December 31, 9 a.m. – 7 p.m., Rishi Valmiki Eco School, Motilal Municipal School No.2, Motilal Nagar No.1, Goregaon (W). Registration: Under 21, ₹400, over 21, ₹500. Concessional rates for NGOs. Mail sproutsearthmela@gmail.com. Donations of ₹500 and over welceom . A nature trail (separate registration), led by bird-watcher Amey Ketkar, will precede the mela, on 30th December at 8 a.m.
Making eco warriors
The Rishi Valmiki Eco School works out of four rented classrooms in a municipality-run school. It was founded in 2010, under the umbrella of the Dnyansadhana Education Society. “We were founded to cater to the economically weaker sections of society; offer them quality education,” says co-founded and principal, Nikita Pimple. “Most of the students come from the nearby slums of Bhagat Singh Nagar.”
Ms. Pimple, a trained teacher who also has a Masters in oceanography, was at the centre of the development of its curriculum, one that emphasises the importance of the environment. “While we teach the traditional subjects, such as math and science, that’s not enough,” she says. RVES follows the same English medium syllabus as SSC schools across the state, with one additional subject, an environment module. “We choose a particular topic each year,” Ms. Pimple says, “and this year it’s mammals.” She has designed an age-appropriate curriculum for each class: for instance, a Standard I student will learn names of mammals and to identify them by sound and pictures, whereas a Standard VIII student’s course will include the diets of different mammals, which ones are endangered, and about efforts to save them.
The students also go on camps, sponsored by Sprouts. Smitesh Jadhav, a Standard VIII student, says, “My best memories of the year are that of a camp to Satpura National Park. There we spotted the beautiful long-banded silverline butterfly. It is native to the North-East, but somehow we got lucky, as it had made its way to Madhya Pradesh!”
Classmate Kasim Ansari, was fascinated by the big cats: “I’ve read up on tigers, and know of their hunting and feeding habits. But on the camp, I learned a bit about identifying animals by the pugmarks.”
“We started with nine students,” Ms. Pimple says. “Today we have 500.” As demand for admissions increases. She hopes to rent more classrooms, within a limited budget.
The mission is clear: “Now is the time to create a generation of ‘green leaders.’”
