Vulture Awareness Program at Anaikatty School
Date: September 22, 2012
Venue: Primary School, Anakatty Tribal Village, Nilgiri District
Organisers: Arulagam, Tamil Nadu Forest Department and District Education Department
Target group: Tribal primary school students and teachers
Purpose: To spread awareness about endangered vultures and threat to vulture populations because of Diclofenac drug.
Medium: Personal interaction and printed materials.
Funding / Collaboration: CEPF
Vulture in-situ conservation campaign was conducted on September 22, 2012 by Arulagam at Tribal Primary School situated in Anaikatty Tribal Village in Nilgiri North Forest Division. During the discussions we had with headman of the tribal village, he was very keen about the program and initiated this program for primary school children.
The tribal students were thought in Tamil language about the vultures, their nearby presence, their role in the forests, cattle grazing and about the practice of administering ‘illegal’ Diclofenac to cattle and their effect on vultures. Children were surprised and felt proud about the largest presence of vultures in their region. Village headman translated the difficult portions in their native language, which closely resembles Tamil and Kannada to make it easy to understand for the children. The active participation of young children and village headman gave us a positive hope and a sense of satisfaction about the future of Vultures in this landscape.
The event was arranged by Arulagam team namely, Mr. Venkatachalam, Mr. Sakthivel and Ms. Revathi. Mr. Justin of Keystone foundation also explained about Vultures to the children. Mr. Rajendran, Head Master in-charge of the school gave vote of thanks.
This village situated in the middle of Sigur plateau-Moyar valley forest landscape holds the healthy batch of vultures, which has been declared as Critically endangered species by IUCN. Arulagam is working towards in-situ conservation of Vulture population in Sigur plateau-Moyar Valley with the support of Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF).
{mosmap width='936'|height='400'|lat='11.554043'|lon='76.755397'|zoom='15'|mapType='Satellite'|text='Anaikatty Village, Nilgiri North Forest Division'|tooltip='DWO'|marker='1'|align='center'}
