In a packed classroom full of children in Yercaud in the Shevaroy Hills near Salem in Tamil Nadu, wildlife researcher R. Brawin Kumar and his team tell a story of environmental conservation making use of shadow puppetry. Children watch mouth agape as a king and his subjects discuss the need to stop poaching. The stage bustles with 17 different goatskin puppets representing the fauna of the Eastern Ghats, including the Elvira rat, shrew, mongoose, leopard cat, fox and Indian gaur.
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“After watching a puppet show on the chameleon, the children vowed never to harm the reptile again”
“In one of our more popular productions, a king is riding through his empire when he is confronted by a group of animals who complain to him about uncontrolled poaching. The king intercedes on behalf of the animals with his subjects and convinces them to stop hunting,” says 34-year-old Kumar, who holds an MSc degree in Biotechnology from Madurai Kamaraj University. Currently, a national post-doctoral fellow at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Andhra Pradesh, Kumar has been studying the small mammals of the Eastern Ghats since 2010, when he started conducting detailed field surveys on the bare-bellied hedgehog (also known as the Madras hedgehog) found in Tamil Nadu. Recently, on World Environment Day, the Tamil Nadu government presented him with the Green Champion Award 2021 for his “extensive contributions to safeguarding biodiversity through research, education, conservation”.
Children love it
The puppeteers in Kumar’s team are from his home district, Kanyakumari. He met them a few years ago when they were working on vulture conservation with Arulagam, a Tamil Nadu-based NGO. “Some children feel sheepish after watching the puppet shows. For instance, when we staged a play featuring a chameleon and asked them if they have encountered it, all of them nodded. When we asked them if they have hunted it as well, almost the entire class confessed they had,” says Kumar. After the show, the children vowed never to harm chameleons again.
The puppetry is part of a grassroots campaign started by Kumar and his team in 2013 to sensitise local communities to wildlife and environmental issues. He has conducted over 150 awareness programmes across Tamil Nadu till date. “In the Shevaroy Hills alone, we have campaigned in 15 villages,” says Kumar, who is the founder of the Elvira Conservation Initiative (ECI), which works to protect the Elvira rat and other co-existing species.
Kumar’s comic book, Mullikaattu Idhigaasam | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
“We have developed comprehensive teaching aids, which help children learn about wildlife. Children are more receptive to conservation messages if they are communicated entertainingly through puppetry, comics, colouring books or puzzles. We have taught them about snakes, bats, pangolins, hedgehogs and other mammals this way,” says Kumar.
Sharing space
He has created two comic books, Epic of the Thorn Forest (Mullikaattu Idhigaasam) and Pangolin Threats (Alangukku Aabathu), about the dangers faced by the Madras hedgehog and the pangolin respectively. Helped by research fellows Mohammed Shahidh and Mohammed Thanvir, Kumar’s project has been a success. “Our activities are so well received that we get called back to the same schools multiple times. We conducted awareness campaigns in a single school for three consecutive months,” he says proudly.
Kumar with a hedgehog
Among the species that the team is documenting is the critically endangered Elvira rat (Cremnomys elvira), a rodent found only in the Yercaud hills; the endangered ornamental tarantula (Poecilotheria formosa) found in Salem; and the endemic Shevaroy Hills earth snake (Uropeltis shorttii). “Very little is known about many of the Eastern Ghats species as compared to the endemic species of the Western Ghats. There simply isn’t enough data to develop comprehensive conservation plans for species inhabiting this mountain range,” he says.
So the team has come to rely on local communities to document different species and their distribution ranges. “When we talk to villagers and community members about the wildlife they spot nearby, we get a fair idea of the species they share space with,” he says.
The Madras hedgehog
Several small mammals in the Shevaroy Hills and the Eastern Ghats are threatened with extinction in the absence of concerted efforts to protect them. “For instance, the Elvira rat inhabits highly specialised habitats in rocky outcrops. Due to their extremely limited range, a single event such as disease, fire or other anthropogenic factors could wipe out the entire population in a very short span of time,” he says.
Building bridges
His major research is on the Madras hedgehog, an elusive animal found in Tamil Nadu. Since it is tiny and its quills are used in traditional medicinal practices, it is threatened by poaching as also by chances of getting crushed under vehicles.
“Many of the species we study are very small and do not get the same amount of attention that a flagship species such as the tiger or the elephant receives. But they are as important to biodiversity and ecology as the bigger mammals,” says Kumar.
rohan.prem@thehindu.co.in
