Dairy from ICC Climate Change Regional Training at Nepal, 19th-25th September 2010

DAY 1

19 September, 2010

The day had finally arrived. It is time to go to Nepal. We, the International Climate Champions (ICC) 2010, from Bangladesh were pretty excited about going to Nepal to attend a Climate Change Regional Training program. The Training will be held from 20-24 September, 2010. We had been waiting passionately for this day- planning, deciding and imagining about it and finally it came. For most of us it was our first regional training, first Nepal visit and first airplane ride too.

Right in the morning at 10 am, we all reported at British Council to attend a pre-departure briefing by Mr. Masud Hossain, Head of Climate, Culture and Citizenship. Then, at 12 pm, we were on our way to the airport. Nabin (ICC 2010) and Sareka (ICC 2009) guided us in the airport since they are one of the few champions who had visited Nepal earlier and she knew what to do and when to do what.

We had reached Nepal airport at around 4:45 pm. British Council’s microbuses were waiting to receive us. After taking some photographs in the airport, we got into the buses and headed towards Hotel Brikuti. The hotel is really very beautiful, surrounded by mountains and taking training in such an environment takes our excitement to a much higher extent.

Bangladeshi Champions after arrival in Nepal

The Nepali Climate Champions were waiting in the hotel for us and so was Malika.  The Uzbekistani champions will come tomorrow. We were greeted with a glass of fruit juice and a scarf. After a brief informal meeting, we went to our room to get freshened up and then start again knowing each other but this time formally.

In the welcome dinner we met Dr. Robert, Country Director of British Council, Nepal, HE John Ku, Ambassador of British High Commission, Nepal and the Deputy General of ICIMOD. Also some representatives from British council and ICIMOD were present in the programme.  The programme started with the welcome note from Ashim Kharel of British Council. Dr. Robert, Mr. John Ku and the deputy general of ICIMOD had expressed their view about the project about climate change, and their concern about it. All three of them mentioned about their concern on the climate change effect particularly emphasizing the condition of Bangladesh and Nepal since these two countries are at the moment most vulnerable to climate change. After their speech, the Champions from Nepal and Bangladesh introduced themselves to the audiences.

As the formal meeting and introduction was over, the informal one began and we came to know more about each other. We had our dinner together, took photographs, chatted, and asked each other about their project. Some of the Nepali champions and Malika had mistaken Dipesh to be a Nepali just as we assumed they would since Dipesh comes from an ethnic group in Khagrachori and most of the Nepali looks quite like him!

Here we are! Champion from Bangladesh and Nepal.....

After dinner, at 9:30 pm, we sat together for a team meeting led by Sareka. In the meeting, we decided that we would work together, share our thoughts and show team spirit throughout the workshop. As the meeting was over, we all went back to our rooms.

–by Proggna Paromita Majumder

(International Climate Champion 2010, from Bangladesh)

Knowledge to Action: Students for Combating Climate Change

With the help of British Council and The Small Earth Nepal, we established Nepal’s first Climate Change Learning Center at a school in Kathmandu Valley. The center serves as a platform for students to learn, discuss and develop new ideas for climate change issue. Books, posters are the main resource material at the center and the school has kindly allocated a one-room building for the center.The center also aims to build the capacity of the students to become actively involved in raising awareness on climate change.

The students are planning to celebrate this World Environment Day (June 5, 2010) with a action rally – where students chant “khali sisi purano kagaj” – meaning empty bottle and old papers and collect recycling materials door-to-door. We will also be organizing an inter-school quiz contest on climate change. What is unique about this celebration is that the students will not only participate but they are the organizers. They came up with the idea, they are planning and we are helping to pull it together. The total budget is $1300 (T-shirts, leaflets, banners, prizes etc) for the celebration. I am approaching business houses and donor agency but since we have very limited time I could use any help/suggestions. Thanks! Kanchan

Youths can also set agenda

Bangladesh ICC COP15 the Daily Star story:

Facing Climate Change
Youths can also set agenda
Nazzina Mohsin with Abdullah Al Razwan Nabin, Zia H Siddique and Sumaiya Kabir

Much has been written and told about climate change impact, mitigation and adaptation over more than a couple of months since COP15 held in December, 09 in Copenhagen. But not much about the role of youth in the efforts.

Whether we could have a fair Accord of the conference or not, in the end, we have learned and understood that to combat climate change, which will ultimately force each country to worry about its own existence, there are numerous issues need to be resolved, not just among the nations but internally within communities and societies. And here, the youths can play a strong role in raising awareness and shouldering the burden of policymakers to fight and live through this greatest phenomenon mankind is facing today.

We — Zia and Sumaiya as British Council’s International Climate Champions, Nazzina as the Project Manager of this programme and Nabin representing South Asian Youth and Youth in Action on Climate (YAC) — were few young people involved in climate change works represented Bangladeshi youths in this conference, bringing in enormous experience of participating in such a large scale event.

We are here, in Bangladesh, and absolutely eager to engage with youths of Bangladesh to come forward to be active in voicing our concerns to global communities and leaders

Here in this article, we are sharing our story which we hope will motivate young Bangladeshis as there are some very big opportunities available to lead youth movements in our region and even in some cases globally if we all come forward, join hands and work together.

Nabin was first among us to arrive in Copenhagen and attend global Conference of Youths (COY) on 5-6 December 2009 at the Copenhagen University. The objective of the conference was to develop the capacity of youth participants through a number of workshops, seminars and presentations. Some of the experienced youths from various nations shared their knowledge of attending previous COP and conferences on climate change which added value to the learning of the young people attending first time in COP15. Kumi Naidoo, Chair of Greenpeace, inspired the youths and said that they were not the future leaders, they were leaders now. In COY, youths from various regions gathered together and planned their actions around COP15 to ensure a real and fair deal is sealed.

For the first time, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) gave a legal status to youth constituency in COP15 and the body of this constituency is known as YOUNGO which coordinated all the youth related activities and events at COP15. The British Council and South Asian Youth network worked closely with YOUNGO to ensure maximum participation of their youth delegation to raise their voice around various climate change related concerns.

The British Council Bangladesh team arrived in Copenhagen on 7th December. The British Council booth promoted active participations of youths through their community based projects in more than 30 countries and put its International Climate Champions in groups such as governance and policy, business and media to visit various events and talks to gather information and share their experience later in the day.

In this conference, we were fortunate to meet and hear many high profile individuals doing their part to bring a change. One of these stars had to be the President of the Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, who mesmerised his audience with such strong implications blended with emotions on where we, as mankind, are heading towards. Yes we agree that he marred his strong presence by clapping for the Copenhagen Accord, which in many ways, did not represent all the countries democratically and has issues around financial responsibilities of carbon emitters and countries necessitated to adapt, still he strongly told the stories of vulnerable people across the world.

And that led us to our interaction with IPCC Chair Dr Rajendra Pachauri. We asked about his views on politically binding agreement and that as youths who are the ultimate owners of the decisions that today’s global leaders make, he clearly said our world leaders must act fast on an agreement, even if it’s politically binding, and ensure that it is fair and credible for all countries. However, the first priority is to set a target to reduce Greenhouse Gas emission significantly by 2020, not 2050.

He reflected on urgency to have ourselves prepared to fight climate change issue at the earliest and here, and that we must act together. A politically binding agreement could work at some level for the time being if it clearly narrates finance, technology transfer and GHG emission cut by developed nations. In the end, we saw, as it’s mentioned earlier, a Copenhagen Accord which unfortunately did not set any clear direction to resolve monetary issues around adaptation or how technologically advanced nations could share their green inventions with fast developing and developing nations to help them reduce GHG emission. However, the Accord emphasised on countries, regardless of their status, come forward to fight deforestation and thought to recognise importance of having a target to keep global temperature below 2 degrees Celsius.

There were a few who supported us enormously and believed that youths through the power of their voices and concerns could make a difference. One of them was the Chair of All Party Parliamentary Committee on Climate Change Saber Hossain Chowdhury MP. His presence at COP15 felt strong because he was there for everyone and engaged with everyone in a best possible way which is listening to the voices of people, including the young ones who brought in stories and experiences to share. And we had a great opportunity to share pleasantries with the State Minister for Environment and Forest at the ‘Bangladesh Night’ organised by Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies but we wished to have more meaningful discussion. Our counterparts from some other countries helped their government delegation to write papers and campaigned for their national causes in important events and this is something our policymakers could consider to add to their agenda.

In Bangladesh, we need to recognise that youths are a source of power which could be utilised positively to help thrive a nation’s prosperity and sustainability. Youths here can think, are innovative and can set agenda through visionary thoughts; they just need attention through which the leaders could value their existence and receive guidance to help themselves shape up their thoughts into fruitful outcomes. Here, many of our leaders in various sectors — from policymaking to education to businesses — could come forward and listen to the youths and help them to be part of this national cause of fighting climate change.

Nazzina Mohsin works for British Council as Climate Change project manager, Zia H Siddique and Sumaiya Kabir are British Council’s international climate champions and Abdullah Al Razwan Nabin works for BBC World Service Trust and is coordinator of Youth in Action on Climate.

Bangladesh Coastal Diary: Cox’s Bazar

People speculate about climate change. Throughout history there were recurring debates about whether it is a real phenomenon or not. Now that the general masses of people have accepted that human-induced climate change is happening, I wonder what is it really? If the weather is supposed to get warmer why was this last winter so cold? Regardless of what is happening with the temperature, we know the ice caps are melting and the rising seas will eat away the land at the coast.

Communities living off the sea will be the first to disappear. They are the poorest of the poor. Unable to afford much else, they live in the most vulnerable areas of the world. They battle against the raging seas and winds to earn enough to feed their aching stomachs.

Bangladesh Coastal Diary is about a journey around the southernmost parts of the country to see how people live and survive, and how their surroundings have changed through the years. The Diary is divided into parts representing the different areas of Bangladesh’s coast: western, eastern and central.

Cox’s Bazar

We headed out for Cox’s Bazar on Wednesday night, February 18th, 2010. I chose the wrong weekend to start the Diary – it was the weekend of February 21st – every room in every hotel in town was booked by holidaymakers. I almost called it off an hour before the bus was scheduled to leave. But then at the last minute, I managed just the one room at Uni Resort for the one night. The rest we’d figure out when we got there.

I had Moon (Naimul Islam) and Tanim (Intakhab Alam Talukdar) with me for Cox’s Bazar. We all were from the Department of Environmental Studies and Management at North South University. I graduated last year and since have been digging my fingers into different short jobs fighting against settling for one only. That’s me; I want to experience everything, within reason, of course. Moon’s been working in Srimongol for a year now as a field research assistant on a forest ecology project and Tanim’s finishing off his undergrad.

From left ro right: Me, Tanim and Moon. In Teknaf.

February 18th, 2010: Rakhain Para, Cox’s Bazar

We reached Cox’s Bazar the morning of the 18th, dumped our bags in the hotel room and headed out after a quick breakfast. We had arranged a CNG to take us to Khurushkul Union right next to the Moheshkhali Channel and stay with us the whole day. We were heading towards Rakhain Para, a village with around sixty households, a temple, five tube wells and no landowners. The people were of non-Bengali origin and had been settled there for decades.

We had reached at a time when the guide who was supposed to have shown us around was called away in an emergency. We took that chance to go around and talk to people that understood our language, who were few in number.

The CNG was parked at the main dirt-road entrance and near it were a few girls sitting on the ground and rolling dough onto individual peanuts and setting it to dry in the sun. They were making the crunchy-peanut snacks sold at the markets in town. And barely ten yards off the ground rose and we knew it was shielding the village from the momentous tides. Involuntarily, we walked towards it.

Woman rolling peanuts in sugar and dough to make crunchy snacks

Cement slabs made up the embankment that protects the area from regular storm surges. Far off boats were dotted in the distance and men were walking towards the shore knee-deep in water. Boys were skimming the close waters with blue mosquito nets tied to large bamboos, catching baby shrimp. Men and women were sitting on the ground in a group working through piles of fish and then hanging them in lines to dry into shutki.

People of Rakhain Para that make fish for a living. Second from the left is the owner of the fish, and he hires the others to sort and dry.

Rakhain Para’s main source of livelihood is the shutki. They work on trawlers and boats owned by the rich businessmen catching fish. Then the fish are brought ashore where others work on sorting them, salting them and hanging them to dry. Others who don’t depend on the sea either sew or make the peanut-snacks.

The sea that provides these people with the means of survival keeps rising year by year. There was more land beyond the limits of the embankment; once there was even another Rakhain village two miles off in the direction of the waters. They lost their homes to the water, eventually moving to live close to relatives, bigger cities and even to Burma. The remaining Rakhain village faces problems now. Constantly in fear of strong winds, they only have one place to go. The cement-built temple situated in the centre is their closest safe haven. The last cyclone to hit brought a surge almost up to the second storey. Salt water has been coming out of the five tube wells for the last five years. The people walk one and a half miles to the next village to get water to drink; they bathe and cook with what they have. Even then, they are better off than other communities along the coast.

February 19th, 2010: Poshchim Para, Sonadia

The next day we planned to make our way to the island of Sonadia. To do that we had to get to Moheshkhali by speedboat from Cox’s Bazar’s ghat, through it by CNG on its broken roads and then by boat to Sonadia. Poshchim Para in Sonadia was stunning. One of two villages on the island we travelled through khals (small channels) to get to, covered with mangroves on both sides and populated by so many kinds of birds. I never knew kingfishers were so blue. We glided up to a grassy moor with children playing, their hairs and clothes entwined by the salty wind. We walked past a few houses and hit sandy floors; my feet would have burned on the island whose inhabitants walk barefoot.

Infront of Sonadia's sandy beach and turquoise water

Behind the dunes was the turquoise water stretching for miles on end. Here too people say the ground once stretched out for a mile. A man told me a large chunk of the island’s mass blew away with Sidr’s wind. A young boy was counting the thread-like shrimp larvae he caught from the sea. His illegal catch will be sold at the Moheshkhali market to large shrimp farms so his family can buy rice to eat. His mother can grow watermelon, spinach and butternut squash on their small piece of land, enough for the family to eat.

This island is known for the turtle hatchery. If you stay up at night, you can see turtles digging out of the sand and struggling to the water. Plastics that wash up to the shore from other places are put into a dumping ground – the turtles tend to choke on them and die.

Like an old lady at Rakhain Para, seventy year old Badiur Rahman said that there was no change in the temperature. “Maybe the cold is less, but the heat is the same as before.” He said the people could grow rice on Sonadia once, and when you would dig a hole, fresh water would come out but now they must use the tube wells. There are no cyclone shelters on this island. The only school is in the next village except for a non-government primary for the few children in Poshchim Para. There are trees now on this island, they came with the people.

Badiur Rahman with his grandson, Sonadia island

February 20th, 2010: Moheshkhalia Para, Teknaf

How we made it back from Sonadia, through Moheshkhali after sunset (we were on the very last speedboat), to Cox’s Bazar and then by local bus to Teknaf was a dream. It was a risky journey that I would advise people against. I would not have done it if not for the slight push from my team members, namely Moon, and of course no rooms were available for the next three nights in Cox’s Bazar.

We slept the night at a guest house situated very near the entrance to the Teknaf Nature Park and went to visit Moheshkhalia Para located a mile or two away from Teknaf’s main beach. Like Cox’s Bazar, the entire landscape was covered with salt pans. That seems to be the main source of income on land. Comparatively, Teknaf can boast of quite a few vegetable patches as well, and betel leaf plots.

I found ten year old Jesmine watering her mother’s green chillies, beans and spinach with water from a dug up hole. Nurul Alam, her eight year old brother, helps her every morning before they go to school. Her mother keeps most of the vegetables to feed the family, selling the excess off. She keeps all her chillies to use all year round. Her father is a fisherman working on a boat with five others. They sell their catch and give half of it to the boat owner and divide the rest between themselves, making barely more than a hundred taka a day. Sometimes, maybe more depending on the season. But over the years, the number of fish in the sea has decreased.

Jesmine watering her mother's vegetables

Moon and Tanim met with a group of men at the tea stall and ended up having a great discussion about business, politics and the weather. The men felt there were less rains in the recent years, but when it rains, it rains heavily causing rapid flooding in the area. Compared to just six years ago, the rainy season hits much later. “It would rain in Boishakh and Jaishto but now it rains in Ashar and Srabon.”

That night we left Teknaf and Cox’s Bazar’s sandy beaches and salt pans and made our way back to Dhaka. The principal difference about this part of the country’s coastline is the sandy beaches. I found that the rapid development of the tourist industry plays a major role in the relatively better situation the population here finds itself in. Recent cyclones did not make landfall in this area hence no noticeable damages were seen. The next destination would be Koyera and Chadpai in Bangladesh’s western coast, which of course is a wholly new environment to Cox’s Bazar.

Salt pans are found all around Cox's Bazar

We have the touchstone!!

We left Dinju, Narmadha, Edwin, Kristi, and Balaji back in the SAH. Spending a night in hotel Alankar Grandé we left Coimbatore at the early in the morning. Most of the Indian friends already departed when we were in sleep. In the airport, we bid adios to some other Indian friends.  We all, the international champions, were feeling sorry for them as we were going to Delhi to attend 2^nd YUVA (Youth Unite for Voluntary Action) Meet, 2010.

We are in the Lobby of Hotel Vikram, Delhi

We were accommodated in Hotel Vikram. We all had gone out for shopping to Lajpat Nagar in the evening.

In the morning of the next day, Mohammed, who had become a very good friend of mine, left India. I was very sad to say him goodbye.

We went out of hotel for sight seeing on that day accompanied by British Council staff.

In front of the Bahai Temple

We paid visit to Bahai Temple and Historic Kutub Minar. On our way, we crossed places like Indian Parliament, India Gate etc.

The Historic Kutub Minar

We were then taken to the TERI Retreat (A facility based on new, clean and green technologies) which is situated at another state ‘Hariana’.  From the main road we came to the building riding a green auto (driven by electricity). The building has a solar roof made of numbers of solar panels to generate power for heating the

TERI Retreat, the green building

water. It also has a Biomass gasifier which acts as the main source of power generation at the day time where the fuel woods and other wood chips are used as raw materials. The thing which impressed me very much was the underground earth tunnels which are used as chillers to replace the traditional air cooler. There is also a waste water treatment plant from where waste water is refined through the root of some special plants and finally used as garden water. We were taken to their other research facilities such as seed research laboratories, seed propagation laboratories etc.

YUVA Meets began the next day. The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) brought together young people from various parts of the world for the Second YUVA Meet 2010 on ‘Understanding climate change through the social glass’.  We had several plenary sessions on different aspects of climate change such as ‘Key linkage between population change, culture and climate change’, ‘Migration displacement and Climate change’, ‘Ethics,

International Climate Champions at YUVA Meet, 2010

environmental justice and sustainability’, ‘Role of youth in creating awareness on climate change’, ‘Climate change, health and gender’. According to the facilitators, climate change not only impacts the ecology, it has far-reaching consequences for the society, culture, and politics of the nations. Emphasis must be given on the understanding atmospheric and scientific changes resulting from climate change first. And to achieve this goal we have to start from the social context. We, the youth, have the touchstone to combat climate change and carry immense potential to be the flag bearers of change. Through our knowledge, observation and most importantly action we can make the today and tomorrow greener than ever before.

We had some interesting events like ‘transition campaign’ (making poster) on a specific theme, Envirotisement (Advertisement or role playing based on a specific environment related theme) and the Indo-UK Green Ragas Concert (performed by world famous ‘the Celtic Ragas Band’).

Concert of the Celtic Ragas Band

At the last day of the meet we experienced a special address by Dr. R. K. Pachauri, DG of TERI and Chair of IPCC. Valedictory address was given by Mr. Manish Tewari, Member of Lokshava.

Address by Dr. Pachauri

The event which I and of course we, the champions enjoyed very much was the ‘Interactive session with British Council International Climate Champions’on ‘Role of youth in creating awareness on climate change’. We were given about 1 hour to introduce ourselves

Q/A Session with ICC

and our project activities and to share our experiences of Nilgiri Action Trail with about 200 participants. Collin facilitated the session. One by one, Khaled vai talked about the role of youth in

Sumaiya talks about the declaration

creating awareness; Dina, Amy, Keren, Haripriya delivered presentation about their individual projects; Sumaiya talked about the declarations we made in Nilgiri. Our activities were being shown on the giant screen. After that we all offered the participants to

Session with ICC

question us and we answered them properly. All participants appreciated this session very much.

It was the 3^rd of February, the last day of our India tour. Our hearts were filled up with deep sorrow as we are leaving India. During those days we seemed to be bound up in a relation with one another so tightly. We felt it while we all were in a farewell party in the hotel room that night. After dinner Larissa, Caroline and Amy departed. Next to them, Sundar, Niraj, Keren, Navoda, Dina left. I, Sumaiya and Zhao departed at 8 a.m. in the morning. At the evening Khaled and Collin left India. Mrs. Anu Thampi, the amazing and successful organizer of such a huge program, left behind!

Here ends such an informative and productive journey. Thank you British Council for providing us with such a huge opportunity to be a part of this tour.

Photography courtesy: Niraj, Ashoka.

Was it a dream?

Just close your eyes! Now imagine…

….It’s a pin drop silence…suddenly a bird chirped in the bush with it’s staggering voice…a blind wind caused to oscillate your hammock with it’s nurturing care…the puffy clouds residing over the neighboring hill seems to be broken down onto your lap…smell of some wild flowers made you got drunk…

Believe me it’s not a fairy tale! It’s all about a place where did we reside for a day. Who thought of this place to be in! The dazzling view of the Bear Mountain Resort made our day on the January 28 at the morning just when we leaped into its ground!

The beautiful Blue Mountain Resort

Before that, we left SAH for Mudhumalai by our buses early in the morning and had a journey of four hours to reach there.  We paid a visit to IISc (Indian Institute of Science) Research Center, Masinagudi and had a session on carbon sequestration research by the doctoral students. They are conducting research on the growth of some 25000 stems to the varying climatic condition i.e. how the gradients of rainfall affecting the forest etc.

IIScRC Ph.D. student briefing session

They measure the seasonal growth (through wood density, ring width, volume) once in a four-year period with Dendrometer Band (a special type of scale to measure the width of the tree to determine the age). They are also measuring the biomass of the trees.

After that we had our lunch and thereafter once again the painting session with Gokul sir. This time he made us paint with water color.

The next session was the evening van safari to the Mudhumalai Tiger Reserve.  Mr. Rajib Srivastava, Field Director of Project Tiger, briefed us about the safari park and its operation. It was established in 1986 with 5000 square kilometer at the tri-junction of Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It is recognized as the best breeding ground of the tigers. The reserved area contains diverse type of vegetation like dry thorn, dry and moist deciduous type, semi-evergreen type, moist bamboo brakes and riparian vegetations.  The place has diverse types of fauna viz. wild boar, peacock, bison, monkey etc. etc.  According to Mr. Srivastava, there are- an Elephant Conservation Center, Forest fire and Disaster Management Center, Satellite Anti-poaching Camps in the tiger reserve. He told that they are doing fine- recruiting the locals and the tribal into the management activities and providing them with alternative income sources rather than forest based one. Some of their future & present conservation strategies such as GPS tracking, floating camp, introduction of Special Tiger protection Force etc. attracted me very much.

After his speech as it had been almost dark, we did not go for evening safari. We just passed half an hour with some giant elephants and watched them fed.

Sumaiya with a elephant kid

How can I describe the night we stayed then at that resort!!  It was started with the allotment of rooms. Most of us preferred the tents on the tree houses to stay in. We then confabbed, danced at the dance floor, played volley ball till mid-night.

At the next day while it was started dawning, we had to get up and go to the morning van safari. On our safari we got chance to watch some deer, boar, monkey, elephants, peacock though we expected to see more!

Peacock in the Mudhumalai Tiger Reserve

We had our breakfast returning to the resort. After that we had to say goodbye to the dearest Bear Mountain!! We returned back to Ooty then but left our heart there. The place will never be blur in my mind for sure!

At Ooty we had a session in one of the oldest and famous club with Mr. Siddharth Krishna who was discussing about Environment and the sociology. The focus of his interactive session was on different environmental problem at the regional and international context and their solution based on social perspective. ‘Can science stop the climate change alone?’ he ended his session with this question. We had our lunch thereafter. Mrs. Anu gave us two hours break for shopping at the Ooty city after meeting the former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission of India while we garlanding the statue of Mahatma Gandhi (The Hindustan Times made this coverage later). We reached our former residence Salvation Army House after shopping and started to work on our declaration and tribe presentations.

Flags of participating countries

We were given a huge goodbye dinner that night. Some local important persons were invited. Girls of local schools and colleges performed traditional dances. We were offered camp fire and moonlight dinner. We danced with them, sung our ‘Surangani’ song and had huge fun.

Local girls are dancing

The next day, the 30^th January, was our last day at SAH! The day for the valediction. From the very morning I had a  feeling like Alfred Tennyson,

Gone – flitted away,
Taken the stars from the night and the sun
From the day!
Gone, and a cloud in my heart…

The program begins with a welcome note by Mr. Venugopal. Then the tribes demonstrated their presentation one by one. The Global and the Nilgiri, both declarations were released after that. Sumaiya and Sruti presented the copy of declaration to the honorable guests.

Sumaiya releasing declaration to the guests

Then one by one, the members of declaration team (Angshuman, Sashank, Bannick, Sruti, Sumaiya, Narmadha, Anirodh and I) read out the declaration.

I was reading out from declaration

Mr. Chris Gibson, Director of BC South India and Mr. Charlie Walker delivered valedictory address. The farewell program ended with the vote of thanks given by Mr. Kartar Singh, Deputy Director, BC South India. Next to program we posed for the photo shoot wearing our own traditional dress.

We two with our flag

Having lunch, we started to pack up our luggage. In the afternoon we got into our buses to leave SAH saying goodbye to Mr. Jayaprakash, who, with his students, was publishing newsletters covering our everyday’s program; caretaker of SAH, who took care of us all through the camp; Mr. M J Krishna, the film maker, who had already been our good friend during the camp period.

Daily Newsletter published By Mr. Jayprakasha

Really..saying goodbye isn’t the hard part, it’s what we leave behind that’s tough! ……..loved the days in Nilgiris…!!!

Buses were heading towards our next destination- Coimbatore. ‘Action trail at the blue mountain’ hence finishes..

Photography courtesy: Deepak, Angshuman, Niraj, Khaled, Mr. Jayaprakasha, Rachana

In the lap of grassland

From the four different tribes (groups) eight representatives were selected who will be responsible for making two declarations- one is for global mountain ecosystem and another one is specially for the Nilgiri mountain which is going to be read out at the last day of our camp.  I, from the ‘Toda’ tribe and Sumaiya from the ‘Erula’ were selected for global declaration by our respective groups. We, the declaration team, started to make it through our late night sitting and discussion. Each tribe has to give a presentation individually at the last day- so they were also working on that.

The program of the fourth day (January 26) was stared with a session with the editor of a local news paper. He talked about ‘environmental journalism and communication’ putting focus on the two principles of an incident to be news worthy- ‘relevance’ and ‘magnitude’. He discussed on different aspects of environmental journalism like how to grab the attraction of the readers about environmental manners etc.

We, then, left to Ooty to visit Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute (CSWSRTI) and attended speech given by the scientists. They are studying on the watershed areas of Nilgiris and found that due to the introduction of alien invasive species like Eucalytus (Eucalyptus globulous), the catchment areas (simply, a surface of ground which holds water) are decreasing day by day. They are trying to establish a regression between the individuals of a paired watershed.

Briefing session at Central Soil and Water Conservation Research and Training Institute

Starting from 1968, during first rotational period of 10 years (after a calibration period of 4 years) 16% water flow was recorded to be reduced on their studies and for 2nd rotational period (next 10 years) the reduction rate was 25%! We also came to know that amount of annual rainfall is increasing compared with the previous year record due to which lateritic soil of Nilgiris is heavily subjected to landslides. ‘Acidity of the high biomass contained soil is also a big problem for the plant of Nilgiris’ they said.

Before lunch at a local restaurant we had a quick session with Mr. Tarun Chhabra, a dentist working extensively on the Toda tribe of the Nilgiris. He discussed on the global climate change in the perspectives of the Todas mentioning their perception of climate change. He described some traditional methods of forest conservation like fire fighting, wildlife and mountain conservation through worshipping etc. But now, according to him, present techniques are disturbing their (Todas’) livelihood. Indigenous knowledge is not being valued by the present management authority which is essential for the proper conservation. Sometimes their (Who are serving the forest from the time-immemorial) entrance and collection of NTFPs are not allowed to the protected forest.

Our next destination was the Tribal Research Center working under Tamil Nadu University and Department of Tribal Affairs. We took a look at the huts, temples, utensils, arms, photos, paintings, jewelery etc. of the different tribes. From that place we visited Godwin’s place and were entertained by him.

Sumaiya and Narmadha in front of a Toda hut

The day ended with the discussions among the different groups.

At the next day, from the very morning we were so much excited as we were going to trek to a forest. We reached to Upper Bhavani forest at 10.30 by bus and went for trekking for 4 hours into the Mukurti National Park until Madippu Malai (Fold Mountain). This forest is of quite differential characteristics than that of ours.

The beautiful lake at Mukurti National Park

It has amazing grasslands, rocky mountains, fold mountains which I have seen for the first time.

Rhododendron tree (the endemic unique species of Nilgiri) at the Mukurti grassland

Beside the forest there was a lake with an eye-catching view. We loved that event a lot.

The folded mountain. You can see the grassland over there.

I, Khalid vai and Larissa at the surface of a rocky hill

On our returning way back to the SAH we touched a Toda Hamlet in Korakundha and interviewed few of them about their livelihood and their perceptions on climate change.

The most amusing event of the day was the composition of a song named ‘Surangani’ (A tamil song re-written in English by us and sung as well) by the passengers of the bus ‘SMS’.

(Here is a link for our Surangani song. You can take a look!)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1325348769908&ref=share)#mce_temp_url# )

We used some unpredictable instruments and some funny lyrics for that song.

Besides, some fun loving guys- Khalid vai, Sashank, Bannick, Vardwaj, Archana and others were cracking some P.J. (Poor Jokes- Khalid vai named so) and we were bursting out laughing!!

As usual, after returning back to SAH, we had to sit for the meeting having our dinner.

Photography courtesy: Deepak & Pavel, C. R. Jayprakash, Angshuman

Action trail begins!!

On our way to Coonoor we stopped our buses for several times and fed our mind with stunning sights of the Nilgiris. Sometimes there was streams, sometimes gorgeous hill view…I loved it! Some of our friends had altitude/motion sickness but it was not that much serious.

On the way to Coonoor we had coconut-water

Ah!! That is the place where I always have dreamt of to be! The Salvation Army House (SAH)! We reached there by our two mini-buses (‘SMS’ and ‘PARANI’) at 12.00 p.m. and checked in. I, Mohammed (Libya),  Niraj vai (Nepal) were allocated into the room no-4. Having our lunch we assembled at the conference hall of SAH  to the inauguration program.

We, the champions at SAH

Mr. Krishnan, Member, International Commission on Environmental Laws & President, Save Niligiri Campaign kicked off with a session on ‘international law & policy related to environment’.

We were facilitated by Mr. Krishnan

He gave a brief speech on different environment related summit ,conference and international agreement starting from Stockholm United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, 1972 to Copenhagen Conference of parties- 15, 2009 through Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit 1992, formation of IPCC, UNFCCC. He talked about India’s stand on Kyoto protocol. He also tried to discuss about CDM and Carbon trading. We came to know about the youth involvement in the decision making process and Agenda 21 for sustainable development which were incorporated into the earth summit.

Mrs. Ranjana Saikia, Associate Director of The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) then came with a presentation about their activities . She introduced their ‘Lighting a billion lives’ and Youth Education and Action program to us. The enlightening the dark village where people finish their all activities at the day time to save their fuel cost and just sleep attracted me much. They (TERI) are providing a rechargeable lantern to the poor villagers with the input from the upper social class. We were informed about the TERI retreat, the green building.

After that Dr. Venugopal came with a welcome note. After that we experienced a short prayer of local tribe TODA wishing our good luck. It was really a peculiar know-how for us and I enjoyed this custom. Then we were assembled at the entrance to welcome the Nilgiri district collector Mr. Aanand Rao.

Introduction with Nilgiri District Collector

Mrs. Anu introduced us to him. Some local musician was playing several instruments to welcome Mr. Rao. We then returned back to the auditorium and addressed by Mr. Charlie Walker, Head program India and Srilanka, BC.

Address by the guest

Vote of thanks was given by Mr. Guru Gujral, Head Environment, Science and Technology, BC.

Street play

We then attended a street play performance by local college students and had a huge dancing session with the traditional Tamil musical instruments.

Traditional Instrumental Music

I and Mohammed were trying to play one of the traditional instruments

We all, including the British Council Officials danced a lot with the music!! The most interesting part was the crazy dance of our Tamil fellow! We love that and tried to copy them.

That was a huge fun to dance with the music

Some crazy dances!

Really we’ll keep the memory alive in our mind for long long time it’s for sure! The day ended with a briefing to the tribe (team) leaders and members.

The very next day we started to Longwood shola forest after the breakfast. It was a mixed evergreen forest which is maintained by a local committee formed in 1998 by the foresters, climate workers, school teachers and the local inhabitants.

Inside the Longwood shola forest

Though they said it would be moderate temperature inside but we felt chill of the winter and pristine ecosystem as the entire canopy was covered fully. The forest area bears humid climate with highly acidic soil as it possesses a thick organic layer which receives a wide range of 18-300 inches annual rainfall.

We were taking notes inside the shola

Climax species is the member of family Oraceae whose growth rate is too slow (1:10 compared to the growth rate of Eucalyptus). We were introduced with swampy land inside the forest whose main species is Sedge and Ciyanthias, the natural water purifier. We watched different species of birds there while we walked quietly through the forest area. We were lucky enough to see animals like Malabar giant squirrel, the largest squirrel species of the world.

We, then, moved towards Sullivan Memorial, a beautiful restored small house serves as a reminder of the life and work of John Sullivan- the first English settler there. It is now also used as Nilgiri Documentation Center. There is a museum inside where there are photos of famous visitors of Nilgiris, photos of mountain communication and transportation, hunting arms of the tribal community, their utensils and farm implements and musical instrument. It’s like an ethnological museum. We had our lunch there. We had an interactive session with the students of local schools and discussed about climate change with them.

Interaction with the local school students at Sullivan Memorial

After lunch we went to the Kodanaad view point, the most beautiful place of tourist attraction. We were, then, given pencils, board and art paper to draw the sketch. Our dear Gokul sir ( an amazing painter indeed) gave us some fruitful tips to make it.

Painting session

I sketched for the first time after my primary level where painting was compulsory but received a huge admiration!

We then went for watching the movie ‘Avatar’ at Ooty- the Assembly Rooms Theatre, one of the oldest theaters of India. Though I watched it before, but theater makes the difference to make it enjoyable to me!

'Avatar' time

We reached to our residence SAH at 10 p.m. and had a group session thereafter the dinner. At the end of the day I and Mohammed was happy to have Khaled vai as our room-mate.

Photography courtesy: Deepak, Pavel, Angshuman, Niraj

from the scrap bin..

This is the character that you always heard of … straight from my scrap bin. Introducing Mr. Climate.

More updates….Coming soon.

Introducing the research activities

Generation, preservation and dissemination of knowledge and solution for addressing issues regarding forest and promotion of positive interactions between people, forest and environment is necessary for the conservation of the forest resources of a country. The Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree breeding (IFGTB) was formed in 1988 at Coimbatore considering this fact as their mandate. The champions were taken to their research, education and extension facilities after the lunch of the first day.

Briefing at IFGTB

They put their research focuses mainly on genetic transformation, DNA fingerprinting, tissue culture, biotechnology, phyto-chemistry etc. field having some huge modern facilities like Nurseries, vegetative propagation complex, open top chamber, seed bank, glass house and mist chambers etc. Through the lecture about their study during the recent years we came to know that they are doing research on some exotic species of high economic importance like Casuarina, Eucalyptus etc. to enhance their productivity. But I had a feeling that sustainability is still being ignorant compared to the economic needs! We all know that exotic species like Eucalyptus etc. has a long run impact of soil-water regime like depletion of nutrients and water, antibiotic impact on soil microbes etc. But these high yielding and fast growing species are getting priority rather than the natives. To me preserving future opportunities, identification of endangered species and development of appropriate and sustained techniques to adapt to the changing circumstances is of urgent need to combat ongoing climate change. It can’t be possible discounting the natives. To curtail the pressure of increased population on the forest areas we need to work extensively on the indigenous species.

We were visiting nursery

The institute has some huge research achievement on genetic improvement, micropropagation, agro-forestry, pest & disease management etc. I was impressed to see their experiments on plants to assess their response to the elevated CO2 using a Automated Open Top Chambers (AOTC) .

Automated Open Top Chamber (AOTC)

This will help them to develop a regional model and a risk assessment based on the socio-economic aspects. The experiment is going mainly on Casuarina and Teak seedlings.

Gass Forest Museum

Visiting their facilities we headed towards The Gass Forest Museum where we have seen many wildlife dummies, arms and utensils used by the tribal peoples, ancient logs etc.

Skeleton of Elephant ( kept in Gass museum)

Coming back from the museum we had our dinner at the KKIDE. We, the champions, were divided into four different groups. The groups were named after four different tribes living in the Nilgiris- Toda, Kota, Kurumba and Irula. Each group members were a given a unique bracelet which bears group identity. I was placed into the Toda and Sumaiya was in the Irula. We were introduced with Mr. Venugopal, the president of Nilgiri Documentation Center (The Organizing partner of the whole program); Godwin, the very very passionate guy about Nilgiri; Mr. Jayaprakash (Lecturer in Communication, Coimbatore) and his students Deepak and Pavel (Who were going to cover the whole camp taking pictures) and M.J. and his team (Who is going to make a film on us).

After dinner I, Khalid vai, Sashank, Mohammed, Kristi, Edwin and some others had a huge gossip together. We talked a lot about animal behavior, environment, religion and lastly ended the session with song and some crazy (!) dances (Khaled vai named so!) of Kristi and Edwin.

We were leaving KKIDE

At the morning after the breakfast we had to say goodbye to KKIDE. We then moved out to Coonoor to the Salvation Army House (SAH) where we going to stay for the next week.

Photography courtesy: Angshuman

Where nature teaches

Some scholar says, ‘the biggest educational institution of the universe is nature’.  I think Karl Kübel, the founder of the Karl Kübel Institute for Development Education (KKIDE), knew this truth which influenced him to build such a nature friendly institute for personal growth and holistic development of children by enhancing the quality of life of parents and families bearing different culture. If you come to this place surrounded by the hills touching the clouds, you’ll surely  come to know what does it mean by ‘living in harmony with nature’! We were accommodated into the dormitories. Some champions from Coimbatore- Sashank, Anirodh, Sunoj, Narmada & others  and some local lads Kristi, Edwin, Balaji joined us there.

Having our breakfast there was an introduction & registration session and we started to the Salim Ali Center for Ornithology (SACON) then. I can remember we were taught about Dr. Salim Ali, the father of the Indian ornithology in our school. Dr. Aziz, the Director of the center delivered a welcome speech to us. Then we were facilitated by Dr. Promod, one of the eight researchers of the center. In his short briefing, Dr. Promod told us the activity of the organization, which is learning of the nature of the birds from the birds themselves. First the research was confined only to the birds. But later, they are doing some good research works on wildlife, plants, ecosystem and others. They have a museum  of wildlife. There were seed research laboratory and herbarium also.

I loved that place very much. This was one of the most beautiful places I have ever visited! I would say it was an institution for the nature within the nature.We, the Champions from different countries have planted at least one tree each there. Some of us planted more than one!

I’ll always remember a line from Dr. Promod ‘…..It’s not very much important that how many trees you have planted in the soil…it may grow or not…important is that how many trees have you planted inside your heart!! ’

Yes! That’s it! Planting trees inside our heart and its proper rearing up is very much important. One must water it, weed it, give it proper nutrients time to time, otherwise it’ll die. And having a pale heart how can we think of making a green surroundings?

Karl Kübel Institute for Development Education

Salim Ali Center for Ornithology

We planted trees

Before the camp begins

Nature has always been a subject of my foremost attraction, so do travelling to a new place. Hence I was very much excited about our journey towards mountainous heaven Nilgiris to attend Action Trail At Blue Mountain, Tamil Nadu arranged by British Council India which was about to start on 22^nd of January, 2010. Though it was my first time across the border and already started to miss my country, I felt my excitement touched the topnotch when we, two champions from Bangladesh- I and Sumaiya Firoze, arrived at Kamaraj Domestic Terminal of Chennai International Airport at 10.30 p.m. We had a 2-hour transit at Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai. I was astonished to see the aerial view of slum areas (Most probably which was used in the movie ‘Slumdog Millionaire’) beside the airport just before disembarkation on our way from Zia. The slum-view was really impressive!

In Chennai, with our contact of British Council, we reached to Hotel Vestin Park at which we were going to be accommodated for the following two nights. We found ourselves second to reach there as a champion from China, Zhao, reached before us. I was to share my room with him.

The next morning, three of us went for shopping.

We visited Chennai sea beach before the night we left the city. From left: Angshuman's friend, me, Sumaiya, Angshuman (India) and Mohammed ( Libya).

At the evening, an Indian champion from Assam, Angshuman, came to meet us. We then decided to go to visit Chennai Basant Nagar sea beach with one of his local friend. By this time, another two champions from Libya and Srilanka- Mohammed and Navoda joined us. We went to visit the silent night-beach as a group.  We had a huge fun there. Sumaiya tested her fortune by a foreteller-parrot, Mohammed shot balloons with rifle and we all concluded the party with ice-cream. We returned back to hotel and joined the dinner table afterward.

At the dinner table, we met champions from UK- Khaled & Colin and had a huge gossip together. After a while, I asked Khaled about his oriental look, whether he is from this subcontinent or not. His answer made me more than happy, ‘I am of Bangladeshi origin’. We returned back to the rooms early because we had to depart for the airport after some hours at 3.00 a.m.  !!!

At the anticipated time, we met Mr. Gopinath, official of BC Chennai and some other champions from different countries- Niraj and Sundar from Nepal, Keran from Srilanka and some other Indian champions at the lobby. We, after checking out, started towards Chennai airport again and met Larissa and Caroline from Germany, Dina from Norway, Amy from Canada and Snigdha, Sohini, Sundeep and other champions from India there. Mrs. Anu Thampi, project manager ICC India/ Srilanka and Miss Rajani, official of BC South India joined us for the first time. We departed from Chennai at 5.00 a.m. and arrived Coimbatore at 7.00 a.m. and found some other Indian Champions waiting for us. We started towards Karl Kübel Institute for Development Education (KKID) at which we were going to start our first dynamic day!!

Special Thanks to- Farhad Hossain Masum

2010 New Year Wishes

Twenty ten will be the year for us now. 2010.

A very very Happy New Year to all of you. Hope you have enjoyed this part of time in some way.

COOL time!! And I am writing just now, the day after New Year’s Day. It is not that I was too busy yesterday but I just get to sit now in the computer.

It was a good time for me. In the eve, I was with few of my friends. Last year also, I was with them. So it was a good time rejoicing the past time and sharing things together. Some distance away from the very very crowded core area, we tried to stay in a somewhat peaceful place. But it was eve anyway..

ANd in  the new year’s DAY, it was fun actually. It was holiday and the whole day I cycled around with my sister. I visited my friend, went to the University Area (it is big and green area) and finally to  Bhaisepati.

It was a worthy day for me!!

A meeting with Dr. Salim Ul Haq

Dr. Salim from Bangladesh is here in Nepal, for his holidays. While he is here, we got the opportunity to talk to him though for a short time.

Yesterday there was a meeting with Dr. Salim along with the other prominent figures from Nepal. He shared about his COP reflections, and more on the Copenhagen Accord. The thing I like was he pointed out the positives for us to look from the Copenhagen and work forward. The experiences and challenges that he faced…” he shared that. And that I felt really interesting. Because, we have to actually work for the vulnerable communities. And, it is not an easy task to accomplish but definitely a must TO DO thing. his sharing was nice and put forward our thought to a level.

Later, we did put some queries regarding COP and the overall climate movement and also the Bangladesh work in Climate Change.

Positive” is what I felt from the talk yesterday towards the climate movement.

HOW positive?? will write very soon………

2 days to COP sharing

The day after tomorrrow, 30th Dec.. is the Sharing of COP at the British Council” from us and yes, the Special Screening  of ” THE AGE OF STUPID” The day to reflect what we actually learnt and discovered, more importantly, if we are up to the expectation of British Council…

Both Kanchan and I represented COP-15  as the British Council Climate Champions. We are back to home now and back to the regular stuffs, our busy busy schedule. Its been over a week now since we have retuned from the COP.

Just thinking, all of the other champions and the British Council are expecting a lot. Don’t know how much we have come to their expectations, and hopes that we’ll stand the best. We have tried our best though. I knew that this was certain after coming back. When we were in COpenhagen, we were analyzing what productive things we did..while returning back to our accomodation @ school. And then, we used to amuse..ohh only this???I now thing, nothing was much for us at that time.

But looking back, I feel I have gained a lot. That was a huge experience, I must say. How?? Well..that I will share in my next write up.