Kheri (Uttar Pradesh), September 6, 2014: To spread conservation awareness amongst school children in Uttar Pradesh, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) with support of Aircel conducted wall painting competitions in 2 schools situated on the periphery of Dudhwa Tiger Reserve (DTR), Kheri district on 12 August. The event was a big success with the theme of the painting competition – ‘forests and wildlife conservation’ receiving an overwhelmingly positive response and teachers’ equal participation enthralling the students.

Glimpse of the painting competition. Photo: WTI

Art for conservation is first of its kind attempt made by WTI’s team in DTR to sensitise school student of Kheri district about their own forests. Dr Mayukh Chatterjee, Officer-in-Charge of UP Carnivore Conflict Mitigation Project sounding optimistic about the outcome of the event said, “Sensitising children about nature and wildlife in particular, through engaging them in creative activities such as painting, is always rewarding. It helps children relate to a cause easily, as each child is naturally fond of what they create. When they create paintings of nature and wildlife, the concerns are imbibed by them more willingly. After all, conservation success can only be achieved when the future generations are more sensitive towards the cause, than what our generation has been”.

Painting by a budding artist. Photo: WTI

Last year on World Tiger Day, the team had organised the first painting competition and conducted nature trails for children to visit the forest area and learn about wildlife.

Another piece of art by a school student. Photo: WTI

Prem Chand Pandey, Sociologist, WTI, the man behind the success of the event said “Children are the leaders of tomorrow and it is vital for them to understand and learn about their own land and forests. The positive response from schools has encouraged the team to conduct the  next school activity  on a bigger scale.”

WTI has been working in the Dudhwa TR landscape since 2009 in collaboration with the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department; resolving several human- carnivore conflicts and training forest department staff in conflict mitigation techniques.