Jyoti Patale, Biodiversity Conservation
From 24 May to 10 June 2026, the team organized summer camps in three villages across two districts—Koynardih and Hapatbeda in Ranchi district, and Salai in West Singhbhum district.Around 70 children and 10 adults participated in the camps across the three locations. The camps were planned for children from Santhal, Bediya, and Ho communities. These villages are surrounded by forests, and children regularly collect seasonal uncultivated food and non-timber forest produce (NTFP). Keeping this context in mind, the camp focused on Nature-culture based learning experiences.
The camp explored how children’s inherent curiosity about birds, animals, trees, insects, and their surroundings can relate to learning. The activities encouraged observation, questioning, and the sharing of experiences.
One of the activities was Bal Akhabar (Children’s Newspaper). In this activity, children worked as village reporters and prepared news reports from their villages. After gathering their stories, they reported on issues such as school closure, road conditions, heavy rainfall during summer, electricity problems, and the lack of a borewell repair system. Each of the four groups then prepared a newspaper and presented it during the camp.
Learning Through Nature and the Community Library:
The camps provided learning opportunities through nature and the community library established in Koynardih village. The camp included both indoor and outdoor activities. These included daily reading sessions from the library, as well as film screenings on biodiversity, water, and birds, seed collection, nature walks, hands-on learning activities, and nature journaling.
Through these activities, children observed local biodiversity, explored their surroundings, and shared their knowledge and experiences.Through the films, children explored the biodiversity of different regions and learned about the characteristics of various landscapes
Finally, the camp concluded with a closing event where children displayed the work they had completed during the camp. The exhibition included seed collections from nature walks, nature journals, newspapers, and artwork made by the children. Children explained their work and learning to visitors. In addition, parents visited the exhibition and explored the community library space to understand the activities carried out during the camp
