March 17, 2023
By Emelie Svensson & Anna Norrby Andersson, Swallows Fellows, Climate Change
This week, the new batch of Swallows Fellows went into the field, visiting Aracode. During the day, we had the opportunity to visit everything from a production center to a school. We had our cameras with us every step of the way, so please follow along on this photo diary!
A photo of the newly built youth club house in Porivarai in the village Karikaiyur. It was fun to see how active the club is and how they engage local youth in making instruments, music and radio.
Tea on the steps of a house in Karikaiyur. A welcome break before we continued on with our day.
A visit to the Kandished plant nursery where the community grows coffee and pepper. Keystone’s Deepak and Kannan explained how the monkeys become a problem when they break in and tear apart the plants. Coming from a country with no species of monkey whatsoever, this was a foreign idea to us. The visit was helpful in understanding how one must take wildlife into consideration when growing within the NBR. It also highlighted the importance of considering local context.
At the Bangalapadigai processing center we got to see the process behind drying and packaging different products of the forest, which are then sold through Aadhimalai. The processing center has a wide variety in their production, whether it be silk cotton, amla, coffee beans or soap berries.
We caught the local students at Karikaiyur school for their last class of the day. Keystone’s Vidya led the students in some exercises to jog their memory of their previous climate smart school classes on the topics of weather and climate change. It was fun to see the engagement and excitement with the children as they participated in the activities.
A common theme throughout the day was the incredible beauty of Aracode. Whenever we thought we had seen the most beautiful view possible, we turned another corner. We were lucky enough to be accompanied by some sharp-eyed biologists, who frequently stopped the car to allow us to admire the amazing nature of the Nilgiris. We came home with an increased sense of how important it is to maintain the biodiversity of the area, in tandem with the livelihoods we had witnessed throughout the day.
A big thanks to Deepak, Vidya and Kannan who facilitated the field visit and shared all their expertise!
