Hello everyone, here’s a list of things that we did the last fortnight,
-Started the INIWIRMO (I notice, I wonder, it reminds me of) module in 2 GCC schools. We discussed the importance of learning through the act of keen observation and the children went out, observed insects around, described them and a few made links from our previous sessions.
-Frog calls session was done for 25 kids from Pudiyador. Given the onset of the NE monsoon, we hope this module will give the kids a new lens to percieve their local neighbourhoods.
Hello everyone, here’s a list of things that we did the last fortnight,
-We did the INIWIRMO module in 2 other GCC schools and we also ideated and did an animal senses module in one GCC school. The animal senses module is to inspire children to try and understand how various living beings percieve the world differently, by which we hope to develop a deeper understanding/ appreciation for all the life around them.
-we did a public wasp walk talking about the various species of wasps around chennai, a highly antagonised, misunderstood speices, talking about their roles as pollinators and as bioligical pest control, identifying various speices and their varied life cycles.
-We did a tree walk for 30+ GCC teachers at IMSC, a guided tour of common species around chennai, how to identify them and stories around them. We later discussed ideas/ potential challenges on how to take this as a module back to their schools.
-Developed a Chennai built up area map over the decades to be used on the flood tour modules.
-Did a recce of Egmore museum and Childrens park guindy to ideate new modules/ material for children.
-Continued work on the wasp guidebook
Hello everyone, here’s a list of things that we did the last fortnight,
-We did the Animal senses module in 4 GCC schools.
-Online training for 12 naturalists from the ROAR organisation on conducting public nature walks, making it engaging and connecting with larger issues.
-We did a soil module for about 40 teachers from different GCC schools, talking about potential modules around soil they can use in their classes, challenges they might face and brainstormed new module ideas.
-Developed a new Bingo sheet for primary children sessions at Guindy Childrens park and ideation of new Geology activity sheet for sessions at the Egmore museum.
-Continued work on the wasp booklet and final corrections on the ant guide.
-Walk at Theosophical society for data for the wasp guide.
Hello everyone, we have done the following activities over the last fortnight,
-Frog senses module was done in 5 GCC schools
-Did an ant walk for around 40 law students at SSN college and shared our ant guide with them.
-Continued work on the wasp booklet
-Worked with CCAG to make art to be displayed for the Ennore power plant public hearing scheduled on the 20th.
Hello everyone, we have done the following activities last fortnight,
-module on leaf adaptations was completed and a bingo activity sheet was created for the same
-Bird calls module was completed in the other 3 GCC schools
-Our ecology based card game wilderness was taught to children from 2 GCC schools and we had a session playing it with them. At the end of the session they were handed a set of the tamil wilderness cards.
-Ant guide hardcopy was released and we did a walk at pachamalai for the same
-continued work on the wasp booklet
-shorewalk was conducted for 50+ people guiding them on how the beach can be not just a place of recreation. we helped give them a glimpse of the vast array of life forms it holds and how to identify them, they were given our coastal fauna guide at the end of it.
-Biodiversity Survey of Parandur where there is a new airport proposed
Hello everyone, we have done the following activities last fortnight,
-Our ecology based card game wilderness was taught to children in the rest of the 4 GCC schools and we had a session playing it with them. At the end of the session they were handed a set of the tamil wilderness cards.
-persistent effort and a lot of meetings over the last 3 weeks to get permission letter approved from the GCC to take the children on the vedanthangal field trip.
-vedanthaangal field trip for children from 3 GCC schools was done. The children were filled with wonder watching thousands of birds at close range observing their, courtship nesting and parenting behaviour.
-continued work on the wasp guide
-Meeting to brainstorm new modules and places to host nature walks around Chennai.
Hello everyone, we have done the following activities last fortnight,
Public ant walk at IMSC for about 20 people helping them use our ant guidebook and identify about 10 species of ants in the IMSC campus. An ant guide was given to all the participants. Our ant guide was also featured in the Hindu newspaper. Go on an ant walk in Chennai - The Hindu
Vedanthaangal field trip for children for the other 3 GCC schools was done. The children were filled with wonder watching thousands of birds at close range observing their, courtship nesting and parenting behaviour.
Continued work on the wasp guide
Bio diversity survey of parandur was done, where the new airport has been proposed.
Hello everyone, here’s a list of things that we did the last fortnight,
The endline survey was completed in all the GCC schools and our new ant guides were distributed to all the children.
We brainstormed a pollinator campaign for the month of April, that we hope will instill a deep love and appreciation for all the pollinators and wildflowers that we find all around the city.
The final edit of the wasp guide was done and the tamil translation was started.
We brainstormed a new module on fish adaptations in the nochikuppam fish market.
We did a recce of two lakes and a park, the siruseri lake and ottiyambakkam lake, and the Pallikaranai herbal garden to host new public walks
Hello everyone, here’s a list of things that we did the last fortnight,
We coordinated with 2 GCC schools to have a wilderness card session for the 9th std children, the batch that we worked with last year. Around 120 kids were taught how to play the game and the tamil version of our wilderness card game were distributed to all of them
Brainstormed a new insect call module and collated a list of 10+ insect calls commonly found around Chennai.
Recce of Pachamalai hill was done. Given the years flowering season is now at full swing, we plan to host a lot of our pollinator walks in this space.
Pollinators walks for 2 batches of children from KFIs the school, were done in the siruseri lake. We guided the children how to identify wildflowers, think about their pollination mechanisms, potential pollinators that can pollinate them and also about the threats to pollinators and how that affects our food security.
Kodungaiyur bird survey was done identifying 50+ species and logging them as ebird data. There is a proposal for a waste to energy plant there which is proposed to expand over a lot of wetlands.
We did a public walk at Pachamalai for about 25 people, helping them appreciate the wildflowers and pollinators found all around them. Wildflower guides were distributed to all of them.
Wasp guide tamil translation work was completed and final design work is being done.
As a part of our pollinator campaign, we have conducted 4 public pollinator walks for about 100 people, helping them observe wildflowers that often go unnoticed, stories around all the life they support, and their pollination mechanisms. The primary goal of these walks was to get people from the city to appreciate, understand and fall in love with pollinators that help us with our food security, discuss their rapid decline in numbers, threats they face and talk about how to coexist with them. All the participants were given a copy of our wildflower guide so they can continue IDing the wildflowers in their neighborhoods and start observing the pollinators that visit them.
We are also awaiting the hard copies of our wasp field guide and plan to do a few wasp walks for the release of the booklet.
We are thrilled to release our wasp booklet this last week after months of effort collating data, research and pictures of 40+ wasps found around Chennai. The booklet is now available to be downloaded from our website. We conducted a walk in Theosophocal society for the release of the booklet and plan to do another one this coming weekend as well. We are also distributing hard copies of the wasp booklet to people who are participating in the walks
We conducted a public wasp walk at theosophical society for the release of our wasps of Chennai booklet. All the participants were guided on how to use our guidebook, inspired to observe these enigmatic insects and were also handed a copy of the booklet.
The annual report from our GCC NBL project with 6 government schools was complied.
We also did 2 ant walks with Pudiyador for about 30 children. All the children were guided on how to observe ant species found around them, describe them and later identify them.
Given the onset of the southwest monsoon, we hosted a public butterfly walk last weekend at Pachamalai. We spoke about how butterflies migrate every season following the green wave pre monsoon, about host plant fidelity and the intricate connections between trees, wildflowers and butterflies and how these insects can be important bioindicators of an ecosystems health. All participants were given out butterfly guide, and we helped them to identify multiple butterfly species through the walk.
We also did a butterfly survey for 3 days in the Guindy national park, documenting almost 50 different species of butterflies and presented a report to the chief wildlife warden and rangers there.
Excellent work, team Palluyir. Bengaluru lies in the migration path of some of these butterfly species and we were fortunate to have seen it this year. Did not know that Chennai too lies in this path. How do you record these observations?
Yes few weeks before advent of the southwest monsoon in the west begins the migration of these butterflies and they make their way down to Chennai. Our butterfly season is from June-Sept after which they usually head back west. We did a survey in Guindy National Park which is a big green space inside the city in June and we documented close to 50 species of butterflies there and submitted a report to the chief wildlife warden there. All these observations are also posted on iNaturalist to help maintain citizen sciene data.
This month we have experimented with conducting 2 public nature walks in the same week and we have had a good turnout for both walks. We also tried doing a 2 part bird sounscaping session (one online and one early field session on a weekday) and we had keen participation for it as well!! Being able to host sessions in a 2 part format and also having people turn up on a weekday morning opens up a lot of potential walk formats for us in the future!
